The Warriors’ Golden Rule
June 14, 2017
On Monday, June 12, the Golden State Warriors overwhelmed the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers 129-120 in the deciding game five of the best-of-seven National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. Warriors standouts Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry led the way against Cleveland stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving to bring Golden State its second championship in the last three seasons.
On June 12, 2017, Stephen Curry (30) of the Golden State Warriors drives to the basket as Draymond Green (23) blocks out Cleveland Cavaliers defenders in Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. The Warriors won the NBA title four games to one. Credit: © Kyle Terada, Pool/Getty Images
This year’s NBA Finals was the third straight match-up between the Warriors and Cavs. Never before in NBA history have two teams returned three straight years to face each other in the finals. After last year’s dramatic win for Cleveland—their first in team history—both the Warriors and Cavs improved their team depth. But it was the Warriors that made the biggest off-season splash, adding free agent do-everything wing Kevin Durant, perhaps the game’s greatest scorer.
LeBron James, who made a record seventh-straight appearance in the finals (including three years with the Miami Heat), became the first-ever player to average a finals triple-double (double-digit totals among three statistical categories) with 33.6 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists per game. “I left everything on the floor every game,” James said after his team’s defeat. LeBron’s sustained excellence was not enough, however, to contain the lethal combination of Durant and the sharpshooting Curry, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). Curry averaged 26.8 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists per game in this year’s finals.
The championship series began auspiciously for the Warriors, who in game one exploited 20 Cavaliers turnovers and numerous defensive breakdowns in a 113-91 rout. Acting Coach Mike Brown led the Warriors in game one and in most of the early rounds of the 2017 playoffs. Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr, who missed 11 playoff games dealing with chronic pain caused by complications from a 2015 back surgery, returned to the team’s bench in game two, when the California squad outscored their Lake Erie counterparts, 132-113.
In a pivotal game three at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena, the Warriors closed on a 11-0 run over the last two-plus minutes to win 118-113, crushing the Cavs’ hopes of making the series competitive. The Cavs built a late 113-107 lead but went scoreless thereafter. Durant calmly sank a three-pointer over James to give the Warriors the lead with 45 seconds to go. James (39 points and 11 rebounds) played a wonderful all-around game but could not will his team to victory down the stretch. Golden State’s Klay Thompson (30 points), Curry (26 points, 13 rebounds), and Durant (31 points, 8 rebounds) proved too much for the Cavs, despite masterful shot-making displays by Cleveland guard Irving (38 points) and a 16-point effort from guard J.R. Smith. In game four, the Cavs raced out to an 86-68 halftime lead—the 86 points a Finals halftime record—and held off the Warriors in the second half for a comfortable 137-116 win. The Cavs—led by Irving, Smith, and forward Kevin Love—made 52 percent of their three-pointers in the game.
In game five back in Oakland, the Warriors built a 71-60 halftime lead, but the Cavaliers, behind Smith’s seven-of-eight shooting from beyond the three-point arc, remained within striking distance for much of the second half. Warrior swingman Andre Iguodala, who scored 20 points in his best game of the series, disheartened the Cavs with four rim-rattling dunks, including two on alley-oops from forward Draymond Green.
Durant won the Bill Russell Finals MVP Award after becoming the first player since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000 to score 30–plus points in each game of the NBA Finals. Durant downplayed his individual award, emphasizing that the championship belonged to the team and the city. “We’re champions and we did it on our own floor,” he said.
