2017–18 Cleveland Cavaliers season

Cleveland reached the NBA Finals for the fourth straight season, despite having an injury filled roster throughout the span of the 2017–2018 season, but were swept by the defending NBA champions Golden State Warriors in four games, the first Finals sweep that occurred since 2007, when the LeBron-led Cavs were also swept by the San Antonio Spurs.

[7] On June 19, 2017 – a week after the last game of the 2016–17 season – Cavaliers general manager David Griffin agreed to leave the team.

[10][11] Around that time, his list of teams he wanted to be traded to included the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, and San Antonio Spurs.

[15] On August 22, 2017, the Cavaliers announced they had traded Irving to the Boston Celtics in exchange for point guard Isaiah Thomas, small forward Jae Crowder, center Ante Žižić, and the first-round pick from the Brooklyn Nets in the 2018 NBA draft.

[16] However, the deal was not completed until eight days later, when the Celtics added the Miami Heat's 2020 second round pick as compensation after Isaiah Thomas failed his physical.

[17] Prior to Irving's trade to the Celtics, he was almost traded to the Phoenix Suns in a 3-team deal that would send Irving and Channing Frye to Phoenix, Paul George and Eric Bledsoe to Cleveland, while the Indiana Pacers would acquire Jared Dudley, Iman Shumpert, and Josh Jackson, the Suns' top draft pick this season.

[19] Finally, on October 14, 2017, the Cavaliers traded small forward Richard Jefferson, point guard Kay Felder, two-second-round picks (including the Miami Heat's 2020 second round pick), and cash considerations to the Atlanta Hawks for the draft rights to Dimitrios Agravanis and Sergiy Gladyr.

[21] On January 2, 2018, Thomas made his Cavaliers debut, scoring 17 points in 19 minutes played in a 127–110 win against the Portland Trail Blazers.

[30][31] The Kings received Joe Johnson, Iman Shumpert, the Miami Heat's 2020 second-round pick, and $3 million in cash considerations.

[45] Cleveland swept Toronto, leading to an Eastern Conference finals matchup against the second-seeded Boston Celtics for the second consecutive year.

[61] With the Cavaliers up 104–102 at Oracle Arena, Golden State small forward Kevin Durant was called for a charging foul when driving against LeBron James.

When the referees reviewed the play to confirm that James' feet were outside of the restricted area, they opted to invoke a little-known rule and reverse the charge call into a blocking foul.

[64] After a James layup and an and-one by Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, the Cavaliers had the ball down 107–106 with 23.5 seconds remaining in regulation.

[65] Cavaliers shooting guard J. R. Smith recovered the rebound and then dribbled out the clock, appearing to have forgotten the score as well as the fact that Cleveland still had one timeout to call.

[70] Smith later claimed that he knew the game was tied, an assertion belied by the visual evidence as well as the testimony of Tyronn Lue.

[74] In Game 3 at Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavaliers raced out to an early 14–4 advantage and led for the entire first half, but the Warriors trimmed the host's lead to six by halftime.

[77] Kevin Durant received the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award for the second consecutive year.

[82] Incidentally, the last team to suffer that fate was also the Cavaliers, when they lost to the San Antonio Spurs in four games in the 2007 NBA Finals.