Warriors finish off Cavaliers in 5 games, regain NBA title

OAKLAND, Calif.—Kevin Durant scored 39 points, Stephen Curry added 34 and the Golden State Warriors won their second NBA championship in three seasons with a 129-120 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of the Finals on Monday night.

Durant capped his first season with the Warriors in triumphant fashion with another big shooting night that helped Golden State avoid a repeat of last year’s Finals collapse when Cleveland rallied from 3-1 down to win the title.

LeBron James scored 41 points and Kyrie Irving added 26 for the Cavs, who had won four straight potential elimination games against the Warriors before running out of gas in Game 5./rga

source: sports.inquirer.net

NBA: Durant, Curry lead Warriors to rout of Cavs, 2-0 series lead

Kevin Durant scored 33 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while Stephen Curry added 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists Sunday as the Golden State Warriors ripped Cleveland 132-113 in a historic second game of the NBA Finals.

The Warriors, who welcomed back coach Steve Kerr after he missed 11 games with health issues following back surgery, stretched their playoff win streak to an NBA-record 14 games by dominating the defending champion Cavaliers in the second half.

Golden State moved within two games of becoming the first NBA champion to complete an unbeaten playoff run, seizing a 2-0 edge in the best-of-seven championship series, which shifts to Cleveland for games three and four on Wednesday and Friday.

LeBron James led the Cavaliers with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists to match a record with his eighth career NBA Finals triple double. Only former Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson had eight prior finals triple doubles. No one else has more than two.

Together with Curry’s triple double, it was only the second time in playoff history that two rivals had managed triple doubles in the same game, the other coming in 1970 by New York’s Walt Frazier and Milwaukee’s Lew Alcindor, who would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Curry credited his first finals triple double to the tension of the title quest and the effort needed to answer the Cavs’ challenge.

“We’re in the finals. That’s all the motivation we need,” Curry said. “We leave everything on the floor.”

Kevin Love scored 27 points for the Cavaliers while Kyrie Irving added 19 in a losing cause.

Klay Thompson added 22 points for the Warriors, with Curry saying the Warriors still have work to do to play their best.

“I could play much better,” he said. “Some good things going on but we’ve got to get better.

“We’re young. We’re hungry. We’re playing great basketball. We’ve got a great opportunity in front of us and we’ve got to seize it.”

Spectacular passes, slam dunks, deadly shots and high-leaping playmakers dominated the night as the game was played at a fast-paced, high-intensity tempo that had spectators roaring with delight.

Durant became only the third player in NBA history to score 25 points in his first seven NBA Finals appearances, joining Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal.

Curry seized command in the third quarter with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists as the Warriors stretched a 67-64 half-time lead to 102-88 entering the fourth quarter, a margin no finals team had squandered so late to lose since 1992.


From there, Golden State steadily pulled away, the Cavaliers having no answer for the Warriors speed and outside shooting.

“The second half we settled in and just tried to play better and played tougher on defense,” Durant said. “We’re just trying to play good basketball every time down the floor.”

The game turned when Curry sank a 3-pointer and two free throws, then dribbled impressively around James for a layup to cap a 10-3 run that put the Warriors ahead 83-73 early in the third.

Cleveland battled back but a steal set up a Durant fast break layup and 3-point play and Shaun Livingston followed with an uncontested dunk to ignite a 16-6 run to close the quarter.

The Cavaliers went scoreless for more than 3:30 late in the third despite Draymond Green going to the Warrior bench with a fifth personal foul.

Durant and Curry each scored 15 first-half points, but Golden State had 13 turnovers at the break after just four in the series opener.

James scored 18 points in the first half with 10 assists, his most assists in any playoff half in his career.

Tristan Thompson played fewer minutes for the Cavs, with Iman Shumpert seeing more time to help ease the defensive load on James guarding Durant.

Curry went 10-for-10 at the free throw line and scored 15 points as Golden State took a 40-34 lead in the highest-scoring NBA Finals first quarter in 50 years and the second-highest ever.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Durant makes his mark in Game 1 of NBA Finals for Warriors

OAKLAND, Calif. — LeBron James had a simple explanation for what stood out in Game 1 of the NBA Finals: KD.

With a motivated Kevin Durant playing some of the best basketball of his career and taking the pressure off Stephen Curry, Golden State dominated Cleveland 113-91 in Game 1 on Thursday night and showed that Cavaliers-Warriors III might not look anything like the previous showdowns.

“You take one of the best teams that we had ever assembled last year, that we saw in the regular season and in the postseason, and then in the offseason you add a high-powered offensive talent like that and a great basketball IQ like that, that’s what stands out,” James said. “I mean, it’s no if, ands, or buts. It is what it is. We’ve got to figure out how to combat that, which is going to be a tough challenge for us.

“But that’s what stands out.”

Durant finished with 38 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, didn’t commit a single turnover and spent much of the night guarding James on the defensive end in an impressive return to the Finals stage five years after his only previous trip with Oklahoma City.

Durant lost to James and the Miami Heat in five games in 2012 and then James and the Cavs knocked off the 73-win Warriors in a seven-game thriller last June.

But with Durant added to a mix that includes fellow All-Stars Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, this year’s Warriors proved to be too tough for James and Cleveland to handle in Game 1.

“He can just go get a bucket,” Green said. “That’s one of the things that we need, a guy who can go get a bucket, get to the foul line. … That’s huge for us. You are talking one of the best players in the game. To have a game like that when he’s playing that way, it’s tough to beat. Thirty-eight, 8, 8, zero turnovers? We’re real tough to beat when he’s doing that.”


Durant played well in his first Finals trip but didn’t have the help he has now with a two-time MVP in Curry, one of the league’s best two-way players in Thompson and a do-it-all demon like Green.

With his big output in Game 1, Durant joined Hall of Famers Rick Barry, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players to score at least 25 points in each of his first six Finals games.

“This is what every player wants to be, is the highest level of basketball,” Durant said. “That’s what you dream about as a kid, is to play at the highest level. I wouldn’t do my teammates any good if I wasn’t just enjoying the moment.”

Durant provided a conundrum for Cleveland’s defense. While the Cavs mostly left Harrison Barnes open last season and thrived when he made just 5 of 32 shots in the final three games as the Cavs overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the title, that wasn’t an option with Durant.

There were a handful of times Cleveland was more focused on Curry and the 3-point shooters, but Durant made them pay with six first-half dunks. His presence also forced James to work on the defensive end, sapping some needed energy he needs on offense if Cleveland is going to keep up with Golden State.

Durant also did a good job defensively in his 1-on-1 matchups with James, who still managed 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists but also turned the ball over eight times.

“Kevin’s a competitor,” Green said. “Obviously being that he’s guarding LeBron, he’s taking that challenge on. And I expect nothing less out of him, being the competitor that he is.”

Durant’s presence also benefited Curry, who hit six 3-pointers on the way to a 28-point night. Curry shot just 40 percent in the Finals a year ago and had more turnovers (30) than assists (26) as he nursed injuries to his knee and ankle.

But after winning the first two games a year ago before blowing the 3-1 lead, the Warriors aren’t about to get ahead of themselves even if Cavs coach Tyronn Lue called them “the best I ever seen.”

“A lot of us have been through both sides of a championship run and a Finals,” Curry said. “You’re not going to see crazy celebrations. You’re not going to see us getting ahead of ourselves. We’re going to enjoy what we do on the floor and going to be passionate about it and have each other’s backs when we’re out there, but every 48 minutes is a separate event.”

source: sports.inquirer.net