Golden State reclaims crown with inspired effort
After they lured Kevin Durant from Oklahoma City, after they were widely derided as “super villains,” after they endured 11 playoff games without their head coach, the Warriors stood on a podium Monday night as gold confetti fluttered from the rafters.
Exactly 358 days after they fell on the wrong end of the most stunning collapse in NBA Finals history, Golden State players took turns hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy before an exultant Oracle Arena crowd. It was a fitting cap to a gilded season.
The history books will read that the 2016-17 Golden State team won 31 of its final 33 outings, including 16 of 17 playoff games. They’ll show that the Warriors rebounded from a Game 4 drubbing in the Finals to outlast Cleveland 129-120 in Game 5. What they won’t tell is all that went into Golden State winning its second NBA title in three years.
“I wouldn’t call it revenge,” Andre Iguodala said. “It’s just making the most of the opportunity that was in front of us.”
The Champagne showers that unfolded inside the Warriors’ locker room Monday were preordained by many. This was a Golden State team that, after winning an NBA-record 73
regular-season games, signed an MVP away from one of its biggest Western Conference threats. But with such immense talent came an unprecedented burden — the unrelenting daily reminder that anything short of a championship would be failure.
The Warriors, a group that values fun as much as winning, mostly mocked the notion that they were suddenly bad guys after two seasons as the NBA’s darlings. On Monday morning, three days after they surrendered 137 points in Cleveland to force Game 5, Golden State players slogged through an optional shootaround at the team’s practice facility as hip-hop music — a staple at the Warriors’ workouts — thumped through the loudspeakers.
And when tip-off arrived at Oracle Arena, Durant — who made himself the target of parity-squawking NBA fans by putting his personal interests first in July — propelled the Warriors with 39 points on 14-for-20 shooting. As the final buzzer sounded, he embraced LeBron James. Five years earlier, with the help of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, James’ Heat had defeated Durant’s Thunder in the Finals. Now, wearing a charcoal cap with his new title — “champion” — emblazoned on it, Durant was about to be named Finals MVP.
“I remember plenty of times throughout my career I continued to just look in the past and look ahead and not stay in the moment,” Durant said. “In this series, I stayed in the moment.”
Unlike last season’s team, which squandered a 3-1 Finals lead to the Cavaliers, this Golden State didn’t deviate from the blueprint necessary to achieve its top objective. Head coach Steve Kerr, guarding against the weary legs that plagued his team last playoffs, monitored minutes closely and rested core players periodically.
After weathering a 2-5 rut in the second half of the regular season with Durant injured for all but two minutes of those games, Golden State began to resemble the dominant club pundits had long projected. It entered the playoffs having won 15 of its final 16 games.
Before dropping Game 4 of the Finals on Friday in Cleveland, the Warriors steamrolled to the NBA’s first 15-0 start to the playoffs. Eleven of those wins came under Mike Brown, who was forced into the lead chair when Kerr stepped away to tend to his chronic pain.
But Golden State knows better than to underestimate James and Kyrie Irving, the Cavaliers duo who orchestrated the most stunning Finals comeback in league history a year earlier. Monday, Cleveland seized a 41-33 lead early in the second quarter. That’s when Golden State tightened up defensively, ratcheted up the tempo and unleashed a 21-2 rally.
Durant poured in 13 points on only five shots in the quarter to power the Warriors to a 71-60 lead by halftime. Staring down elimination, the Cavaliers hung close. The problem for them was that whenever Cleveland inched within striking distance, a Golden State player — often Durant — responded with a timely shot. Moments after Tristan Thompson hammered home a James lob to cut the Cavaliers’ deficit to 90-86 with less than four minutes left in the third, Durant netted a three-pointer from the top of the arc to prompt a Cleveland timeout.
It wasn’t until Durant flung a long pass to a wide-open Stephen Curry for a reverse layup with 4:31 remaining that Golden State had effectively secured what it had been pursuing since James kissed the Larry O’Brien Trophy on this same Oracle Arena floor 51 weeks earlier.
But Monday wasn’t about a single outing. It was about Golden State ushering in the next chapter of what could be a lengthy dynasty.
“Winning a championship is so hard,” Kerr said. “When you do it, you just get nine months of all this work, and you finally let loose.”
“In this series, I stayed in the moment.” Kevin Durant, Finals MVP