Before the game that means everything, let's flash back to a game that meant nothing -- to the last time LeBron James and Stephen Curry shared the stage before these NBA Finals.
In the waning moments of February's All-Star Game in Toronto, Curry pulled up from just inside the half-court line and launched a 3-pointer that swished through the net. After so many other storylines had rippled through the weekend, from Kobe Bryant's final All-Star appearance to a dunk contest renaissance to teammate Klay Thompson winning the 3-point shootout, Curry had the final say, offering a reminder of his special skill set that propelled him to the top of the league. And then he literally had the last word, as the final player at the podium to speak to the media. When he left, after pausing to scoop up daughter Riley, it seemed as if everyone in the room tried to follow him to the elevator.
A few minutes later, down by the Air Canada Centre court, James walked in relative solitude behind the baseline seats with a foam roller tucked under his arm. The foam roller is one of his weapons to combat the soreness that has accumulated from 13 years in the NBA, and he held it close like it was a trusted ally. James' goal was to get through All-Star Weekend -- not own it. He played only 20 minutes in the game, the fewest of any starter. Let Curry have the accolades; James had his foam roller. The real battle was yet to come.
Four months later, the two superstars are pitted against each other for the last time this season, in Sunday's Game 7 of the NBA Finals. It's Curry's arrival at the apex over the past two seasons against James' perseverance as a dominant force in the league for more than a decade. We're about to find out if the NBA really has shifted toward Curry and the Warriors Way, or if the past two years amounted to an illusion.
The fact that these are the stakes, that James now represents the old guard, is a shift in itself. Six summers ago, James was viewed as the epitome of a spoiled new era, a star who went on television to announce he was going to team up with two other stars in Miami -- to the horror of older generations of players who had neither the option nor the desire to flex their free-agent rights.
Another shift is in the offcourt issues surrounding the teams. It wasn't too long ago that the Cavaliers were the team awash in drama, firing coach David Blatt midseason and constantly coping with interpretations of their players' social media postings.
Lately, things have been tumultuous for the Warriors. Draymond Green was suspended for an accumulation of reckless plays, Curry was fined for throwing his mouthpiece at courtside fans and his wife took to Twitter to question the league's integrity.
All of the Warriors' frustrations mask -- or maybe stem from -- the way the Cavaliers have managed to alter the terms of these NBA Finals. The Warriors wanted to pour in 3-pointers and dare the Cavaliers to keep up, or at least use the threat of the 3-pointer to spread the court and leave the interior vulnerable. But the Cavaliers have managed to contest the Warriors' better shooters, and they've left the increasingly frigid Harrison Barnes so open that he has no choice but to shoot -- and miss. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are challenging every Warriors drive, summarized dramatically by James' block of Curry's left-handed layup attempt late in Game 6.
At the other end, the Cavaliers have exploited the Warriors' lack of size, which was exacerbated by the series-ending injury to center Andrew Bogut in Game 5. After Golden State outscored Cleveland in the paint 104-82 in the first two games, the Cavaliers have dominated that category in the four games since, 190-102.
History is on the Warriors' side. None of the previous 32 teams to lead the NBA Finals 3-1, as the Warriors did, lost the series. No team has lost a seventh game of the NBA Finals at home since the Seattle SuperSonics in 1978. The Warriors haven't lost three consecutive games at any point this season.
But the present favors the Cavaliers. James is on a rampage, with 82 points, 24 rebounds and 18 assists in the past two games. The Warriors are losing players to injury or lack of confidence (Barnes is a couple of missed shots away from having his value reduced to six personal fouls to use on James). Golden State has gone from losing only nine times in 82 regular-season games to losing six times in the past 13 playoff games.
For the Warriors, the best hope is to go back to the future, to when Curry's long-distance 3s looked like the next wave of the NBA. Back to February, when their star power glowed amid the chilly Toronto nights.