Golden run by Durant seals win in Game 1
KEVIN Durant drove through the lane untouched for dazzling dunks.
He dished off even when he could have slammed it home and did it all on defence.
He hit from long range, too, in a dominant NBA Finals opener with the Warriors.
Durant finished with 38 points, eight rebounds and eight assists to lead Golden State past LeBron James and the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers, 113- 91 yesterday in Game 1.
Stephen Curry scored 28 points with six three- pointers and 10 assists as this sureto- be thrilling trilogy began at last, a long- expected, spectacular grand finale envisioned ever since that July day when Durant left Oklahoma City to join the loaded Warriors.
“We could be a lot better than we were tonight but in the Finals you get a ‘ W’, we’ll take it,” Durant said.
James wound up with 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists a day after dealing with bigotry far away from basketball.
Someone painted a racial slur – the N- word – on the gate of his Los Angeles home, leaving James to address racism rather than his seventh straight Finals appearance or stopping KD. James said he would do his best to be ready for the series opener when his mind was elsewhere, concerned for his wife and children back in Ohio.
Durant punished Cleveland for leaving him free, taking the ball to the hoop for emphatic dunks as a man on a mission to deliver exactly what he came for – a championship.
He had six slams in the first half alone for the Warriors, who at 13- 0 are already the first team to go this far in a postseason unblemished.
“They’re the best I’ve ever seen,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “They’re 13- 0, they’re constantly breaking records every year.”
Game 2 in the series is on Monday back at Oracle Arena with its deafening sellout crowd. Durant won the first battle with King James.
“Those are two big household names, so we know you guys and the fans are going to want to see that and pick up on it,” said acting Warriors coach Mike Brown, facing a Cleveland franchise that fired him but twice.