The Golden State Warriors were back to their best this year, cruising to another NBA finals win against their now standard finals opponents the Cleveland Cavaliers. Astonishingly, this was the third consecutive season that the two giants of basketball clashed, with the Cavs looking to retain their title and the Warriors looking for retribution after giving away a 3-1 lead last year. Surely the 2 titans couldn’t clash in the finals again next year could they? Given previous history it could potentially a very easy bet. If you ask Lavar Ball, I’m sure he’d say his son will have the Lakers in the Finals in 2018. Ha.
The Warriors had a great regular season, finishing 67 for 15 and breaking records along the way. They were the first team in NBA history to win their first 12 games in a row, entering the record books with successive wins against the Portland Trailblazers, the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs. They booked themselves into the finals for the 3rd year in a row after the end of a brilliant campaign.
The finals were nowhere near as turbulent as last year, although there were some murmurs in game four when the Cavs pulled a game back to reduce the Warrior’s 3-0 lead to 3-1. What would be the final game was crunch time for the Warrior’s; surely history wouldn’t repeat itself, with the team losing a 3-0 lead this time around?
Game 5 was certainly not a walk in the park for the Warriors, with only 9 points separating them when the final buzzer went. Although LeBron James and Kyle Irving did their best to match the Warriors’ offense, the Cavs couldn’t seem to find the hoop with Kevin Love only managing 6 points and a team score of 29 at the opening quarter of the game. At one point however, the Warriors trailed 41-33 in the 2nd quarter, slowly chipping away at the deficit to bring the score to 45-43. Then, Kevin Durant turned the game for good, scoring 39 points including a 17-foot fade away over James. Stephen Curry also added 34 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds. The Cavs were kept in the game by James, who managed 41 points and became the only player to score a triple-double in the history of NBA finals. The Warriors finished the game 129-120, taking the trophy back to Oakland.
The Warriors are certainly riding high with a set of players dubbed ‘the fantastic four’ really dominating big games. Finals MVP Kevin Durant was brilliant in every game, backed up by Curry, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, who all helped the warriors to the highest BNA finals winning percentage with their 16-1 record. Durant has certainly been the missing piece, stamping his credentials on the finals and repaying LeBron James for being on the wrong end of a finals loss in 2012 at the hands of James and the Miami heat whilst playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Thanks to the NBA scheduling changes, games seem to have opened up a lot more and we could see the Warrior’s becoming the first team in NBA history to make it four finals in a row. The big question however is if the Cavs can do it too, with plenty of others breathing down both team’s necks.
