Warriors’ win also an eye-opener

AND so, as the gods of the game had so seemingly decreed it from Day One, Golden State retained its NBA crown yesterday in a Game 4 108-85 rout of Cleveland.

It was a game bereft of thrills, and massively made bland by Cleveland’s cavalier resistance amid the virtual certainty of annihilation.

We can’t blame LeBron “King” James and the Cavs for that.

Trying to win it, again, might only result, again, in another disaster; embarrassment even in front of their compatriots.

It’d just be another exercise in futility, given that the king was, again, up against a regiment armed to the teeth.

The king’s dethronement was basically imminent as the Warriors’ three musketeers in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant were simply too much to overcome.

With the king and his court reduced to like rebels fighting a lost cause in the first three games—OK, a gaffe I submit had denied the Cavs a Game 1 triumph—they got themselves virtually led to the gallows in Game 4.

Curry, making just 1-of-10 threes in Game 3, recalled his hot hands yesterday to unload 37 points on 7-of-15 shooting from beyond the arc to go with Durant’s triple double that clinched for him the Finals MVP.

It was but decent and honorable that, with an unreachable 102-77 Warriors lead at the 4:03 mark, James had to leave the game for good—but not after shaking the hands of his tormentors in a poignant scene worth remembering.

But why did the Warriors choose to win the title-clincher in a foreign land instead of in their turf on Tuesday?

What is one gift of a game for Cleveland, as there’d be three more games left anyways to accomplish the makeable mission of pocketing the crown at home?

Who would ever doubt Golden State’s march to the throne again after it had beaten Cleveland three straight—the last one at the Cavs’ sacred The Land?

Well, by accomplishing the unexpected—winning the title-clinching Game 4 in Cleveland—Golden State’s legend had grown all the more bigger, even deflecting hints the Warriors would take a dive yesterday in exchange for their coronation in Oakland a second straight year.

In essence, the NBA was also a winner. The bigger winner, I might say. With confidence.

Will our own kind learn from this, please?