BY AYODELE ODUMADE

The Golden State Warriors set the record straight as they became NBA Champions for a second time in three years as they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-120, to take the series 4 games to 1.  They avenged their loss from last year when they blew a 3-1.   In the last two seasons both teams have gone toe to toe. However there have been so called ‘mitigating circumstances’ according to some pundits and fans.

In 2015 Cleveland were without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love due to injuries during the playoffs. Last year The Golden State Warriors had Draymond Green suspended for game five and if that was not bad enough Steph Curry was ejected in game 6 on top of going cold with shooting problems.

The groundwork for the Warriors success this season were laid in the locker room right after their tough loss last year to the Cavs, by Draymond Green who texted Durant to ask if he would be willing join them this season. 

The Cavaliers hardly had time to savour their title when the shock news came through that Kevin Durant, who went up against LeBron in the final in 2012, had signed for the Golden State Warriors to add to their already star-studded cast which also had Klay Thompson.  Most felt that was the moment the 2017 NBA title was won.

The Warriors took a three nil lead in this series including a tight game three win in Cleveland, due to an 11-0 run in the closing stages.  The Cavaliers did not show up until game four when they were staring elimination in the face.  They blew out the Warriors to force a game five but it was felt that that was as good as it would get for them as they would be unable to replicate that performance. Although some felt that if they could force a game 6 then they would have a chance. The problem though is that this Warriors team do not have many off nights. To put things into perspective they won 16 of their 17 post regular season games to tie the best the record.  

Lebron was Lebron. He became the first player to average a triple double over an entire NBA Final series. Kyrie Irving did his bit, but the Cavaliers bench was outperformed by the Warriors bench over the course of the Finals.  Last season’s Finals MVP Andre Iguodala scored 20 points of the bench in game five.  Ultimately though Kevin Durant was the difference here because without him this series easily could have gone back to Cleveland for a game six.  Durant ended up with 39 points and not surprisingly he was voted the 2017 Finals MVP.  Good teams always look to improve their team and the rest of the NBA must try to figure out what they need to do to topple this outstanding Warriors team who could possibly be on the verge of establishing a dynasty.

The coach Steve Kerr became the fourth coach to win two NBA titles in four years, while Kevin Durant became the third person to win a title in his first season with a team.  The other two were Magic Johnson in 1980 with the Lakers and Moses Malone in 1983 with the Philadelphia 76ers.

The question now must be how good can this Warriors team become?  The beauty of the team is that you rarely have all four of their stars have an off night. At least two of them will show up. The problem for the Cavaliers was that Kevin Durant showed up in every game in this series thus exorcising the ghost of 2012 when he came up short with OKC against the Miami heat.  He also helped the Warriors to exorcise the demons of last year.

There has been criticism of Durant in some quarters that he left OKC for Golden State Warriors to win a championship ring having been on the end of a beating in the Western Conference Finals last year. It was felt that he should not have gone to a rival team especially after coming close to knocking them out last season.  However, the other side of the argument is that LeBron too left Cleveland after 7 empty years to win a Championship with Miami who were their rivals in the East.  Some even said that he went to create something special there. Could it be that Durant came to Oakland to help create a dynasty with the Warriors? He might just have moved there to set a new Golden standard. Time will tell.