SWEET VICTO
Golden State celebrates a second straight title over Cleveland
The Golden State Warriors were the prohibitive favorites to win a second straight championship entering these NBA Finals. After completing a four-game sweep, they
proved why. The the Warriors Cavaliers were 108-85 dominant to claim Friday their third night, NBA routing crown in four years — all with Cleveland as their opponent. It was a performance befitting a team that will go down among the greats in the history of the sport. A team that appears to be in the early stages of a dynasty, Golden State was ferocious on defense and seamlessly smooth on offense. The Warriors produced seven steals and 13 blocks while defending and 14 3-pointers, 25 assists and just eight turnovers when they had the ball — evidence of what the team is capable of when focused, which Golden State clearly was in the clincher.
Most importantly, the Warriors’ two former MVP winners, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, were locked in. Curry had 37 points, making 7 of 15 shots from 3, while Durant followed up his 43-point performance in Game 3 with his first triple-double — 20 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists — in an NBA Finals game en route to being named the series MVP.
LeBron James, meanwhile, had 23 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in 41 minutes as his incredible playoff run came to a quiet end. He checked out for the final time with 4:03 remaining to a standing ovation, as well as an MVP chant from the fans inside Quicken Loans Arena.
The question now is whether it was James’ final home game for Cleveland, with free agency looming this summer.
For Golden State, though, Friday night’s victory moved the franchise into rarefied air. The Warriors’ successful title defense marked the 13th time in NBA history a team has won at least two in a row, and they became the seventh franchise to do so,
joining the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons.
Claiming a third title in four years puts the Warriors in even rarer company. It’s only happened six other times in NBA history — the last being when the Lakers won three titles in a row from 2000-02.
Still, the air of inevitability that came with this championship made for a different feeling than, say, how the Washington Capitals celebrated winning the Stanley Cup the previous night.
While that was a joyous celebration after decades of heartbreak, the Warriors getting the result they were always expected to felt more like a relief after a long slog of a season, a result long expected and predicted by many before the season tipped off.
The weight of expectations have hung over this team from the moment the Warriors added Kevin Durant to a team that won an NBA-record 73 games two years ago.
Last season, the newness of Durant’s arrival propelled the Warriors forward. They cruised to 67 wins, then looked utterly dominant in posting a 16-1 record in the postseason - including winning their first 15 games of the playoffs — that was capped by beating the Cavaliers in five games to win the title.
This season, though, things were far different. Golden State suffered a rash of injuries, seeing all four of their all-stars miss at least nine games, led by Curry sitting for 37 — including six playoff games. Looking like they were in second gear for most of the season, the Warriors won perhaps the most uninspiring 58 games in NBA history, and ceded home court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs to the Houston Rockets in the process.
That nearly wound up costing the Warriors dearly, as fourth-quarter collapses in both Games 4 and 5 of the Western Conference finals allowed Houston take a 3-2 lead in the series, and move Golden State to within a game of elimination. But the loss of Chris Paul to a hamstring injury in the final minute of Game 5 doomed Houston’s chances, as Golden State won Games 6 and 7 — despite trailing at halftime of each — to make it back to the Finals.
That brief moment of vulnerability, though, quickly fell away. While Cleveland, despite being swept, gave Golden State a stiffer test than might have been expected — including going to overtime in Game 1, a game that included a memorable gaffe by the Cavaliers’ J.R. Smith in the final moments of regulation, and Golden State needing an all-time performance from Durant to win Game 3 — the series had a sense of inevitability to all but the most diehard of Cavaliers fans.