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A bunch of reasons to tune in now

| May 30, 2018 1:00 AM

Professional sports aren’t supposed to be this easy.

Whether a fan of the National Hockey League or the National Basketball Association, there’s a little bit of history happening right now.

IN CASE you missed it, the Stanley Cup finals started on Monday with the Washington Capitals taking on the Vegas Golden Knights in Las Vegas.

The who playing where?

Vegas is an expansion team this season, making history simply for just advancing to the championship round in its inaugural season.

Other teams have won titles after a few years, but nothing like this.

Last summer, while trying to build some hype for the team, the franchise passed through the northwest, including a stop at Frontier Ice Arena in Coeur d’Alene, where players and other team personnel met with fans. A Golden Knights banner hangs in the ice arena.

Regardless of what happens next — and Vegas leads the series 1-0 — just advancing this far is pretty incredible for a first year.

Most of the players were acquired via an expansion draft, meaning that some other team in the NHL didn’t think those players could help them anymore.

Now, they’re just three wins away from a championship in their first year.

Something some teams have spent decades chasing, yet have never played in the title series.

Pretty amazing, win or lose.

AFTER BEATING the Houston Rockets in seven games in the Western Conference finals on Monday, the Golden State Warriors advanced to the NBA Finals for a fourth straight season.

For a fourth straight season, they’ll have to get through the Cleveland Cavaliers for a world title.

There has never been a stretch where teams have met four straight times in the NBA Finals.

Some believed that the championship was decided on Monday, with Golden State just being too much for Cleveland to handle again this year.

And maybe they’re right.

Golden State was pretty dominant in 2017 in beating Cleveland and a lot of those same players are back again this year.

Cleveland returns LeBron James, Kevin Love and a few role players that have plenty of experience in big time games.

But again, they’ve got LeBron, and that’s been enough since he returned to Cleveland three years ago.

Sunday night, LeBron showed again why he’s capable of winning games by himself, with some contributions from whoever he can find on the court any given night.

There’s never been a run like this, whether it’s James and making it to eight straight Finals appearances, or seeing the same two teams determine the world champions four straight years.

Hopefully the series can provide some entertainment, no matter who your team is.

If you’re not entertained by it, you might be watching these games for all the wrong reasons.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.