WARRIORS SWEEP CAVS FOR TITLE
CLEVELAND — Over the past eight months, as they toiled through lapses in focus and urgency, the Warriors repeated three words: “We’ll be fine.”
Though the talent divide separating it from the rest of the league has tightened, Golden State knows that its biggest opponent is itself. In capping their NBA Finals sweep of the Cavaliers with a 108-85 win in Game 4 on Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena, the Warriors put it all together for four quarters, riding the same joy that made them the class of the league to their second straight championship and their third in four years.
Before hundreds of empty maroon seats, with no gold confetti fluttering from the ceiling at the final buzzer, Golden State vaulted into rarefied territory. Stephen Curry’s Warriors joined Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics (1957-66) as the only teams to reach at least four consecutive Finals and win more than two championships. In addition to being the first franchise since Phil Jackson’s Lakers (2000-02) to win three championships in a four-year span, Golden State is the ninth team in NBA history to achieve a Finals sweep.
By making such quick work of LeBron James and Cleveland, Golden State silenced anyone who had questioned its ability to respond when it counted most. All the concerns about the Warriors’ uneven play hardly matter now that Golden State has put the last dab of polish on its dynastic status.
“We just wanted to win, and however it came, we were excited about it,” Finals MVP Kevin Durant said. “But to win in a sweep feels pretty good.”
Instead of succumbing to an all-too-familiar emotional letdown in the face of a 3-0 series lead, the Warriors led nearly wire to wire in Game 4. They played stifling defense, made the extra pass and outscored Cleveland 25-13 in the third quarter to leave no doubt. James, who can enter unrestricted free agency in July, checked out with 4:03 left to “M-V-P!” chants.
In what was probably his final series with the Cavs, James was borderline superhuman, averaging 34 points, 10 assists and 8.5 rebounds. It didn’t matter. Thanks to four All-Stars in their prime atop a deep roster, the Warriors did what the pundits had expected all along.
Curry scored 37 (seven threepointers) to pace Golden State. To put the finishing touches on his second consecutive Finals MVP award, Durant chipped in a triple-double: 20 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
In the visitors’ locker room, as Champagne corks popped and cigars were lit, players spoke about a season marked by adversity. This 2017-18 Larry O’Brien Trophy holds special significance because of all that the Warriors had to overcome to reach this point.
“It was extremely difficult,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “Not just the playoff run, but this entire season.”
Each season has a distinct vibe that permeates the locker room and spills onto the court.
In 2014-15, Steve Kerr’s first at the helm, the Warriors were relative upstarts who rode their joyful, egalitarian brand of basketball to the franchise’s first NBA title in 40 years. The following season, motivated by the urge to silence anyone who doubted that surprising run, Golden State won an NBArecord 73 regular-season games before it squandered a 3-1 series lead against the Cavaliers and watched James celebrate a championship at Oracle Arena.
Last season, after stunning the league with the addition of Durant, the Warriors again had the NBA’s best regular-season record, bulldozed through the playoffs with a 16-1 mark, and needed only five games to get Finals redemption against Cleveland.
The league-wide consensus was that 2017-18 would provide similar dominance, but Kerr knew that challenges loomed.
Playing deep into June for three straight years took a mental toll on the Warriors. As Golden State slogged through a 58-win season, it struggled to play with intensity, discipline and focus.
It didn’t help that the Warriors endured a slew of injuries, most notably Curry.
Unable to play up to their immense potential, the Warriors settled for the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed.
The Warriors ratcheted up the intensity in the playoffs, needing only five games to get by the Spurs in the first round before Curry returned for Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals against New Orleans, which Golden State also dispatched in five games.
It took a team as elite as the Rockets to puncture Golden State’s air of invincibility. With its season hanging in the balance, Golden State had to rally from double-digit halftime holes in Games 6 and 7 to secure a fourth straight date with Cleveland in the Finals.
In the Finals, Golden State faced a Cavs team that was the most flawed of the four it has seen at the sport’s summit. Still, James — at 33, somehow at the peak of his powers — was enough to make the mismatch intriguing. If not for J.R. Smith’s mental blunder late in regulation of Game 1, or Durant’s 43-point masterpiece in Game 3, Cleveland could have entered Game 4 with a 2-1 lead.
Now, as the Cavs await James’ free-agency decision, the Warriors savor their hardest-earned championship of the Kerr era. They might have said that they would be fine, but they didn’t necessarily always believe it.
“Absolutely,” Kerr said, “there were doubts.”