NBA FEATS, FACTS AND FIGURES 6: WARRIORS WIN THIRD TITLE BY A SWEEP
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 10 Jun 2018
Kevin Durant won the Most Valuable Player of the NBA finals, winning the award now twice in a row. The Golden State Warriors had just won the NBA championship, sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 108-85 Game 4 victory, their third title in four years, and their second in a row.
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Kevin Durant is now the 6th player to win back-to-back Finals MVPs. The others are LeBron James (2012-13), Kobe Bryant (2009-10), Shaquille O'Neal (2000?2002), Michael Jordan (1991?1993, 1996?1998) and Hakeem Olajuwon (1994-95).
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Durant had 20 points and is the Warriors' second top scorer to Stephen Curry?s 37. Golden State has built a championship team based on teamwork unlike the Cavaliers who built their team around LeBron James.
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James revealed he had played the final three games of the series ?with pretty much a broken hand.? He blamed officials calls and team mistakes in Game 1 which the Cavs could have won but lost in overtime, blaming the painful loss destroyed his team for the rest of the Finals. ?I had emotions on the (first) game (that) was taken from us,? James said. ?I let the emotions get the best of me.?
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Golden State started to pull away at the end of the second quarter. Curry hit a quick three-pointer just before halftime to put the Warriors up 61-52. Since then the Warriors never looked back and the Cavaliers fell for the fourth time.
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Curry led the Warriors with 37 points on 12-for-27 shooting and went 7-for-15 from 3-point range in the Warriors' 108-85 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday.
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Kevin Durant had a 20-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist triple-double, plus three blocks. James had 23 points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
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Curry and Durant each had a genuine case for Finals MVP. It ended up going to Durant for the second straight year.
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Curry had 12 points in the first quarter, two days after scoring just 11 in Golden State's Game 3 victory.
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James Herbert of CBS Sports wrote: "One last word on the 2017-18 Cavs. The sweep doesn't tell the whole story here. Less than six weeks ago, Cleveland was in genuine danger of losing its first-round series to the Indiana Pacers. In the conference finals, it came back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to beat the younger, deeper and more athletic Boston Celtics. In order to get here (and, yes, be overmatched against a superteam), James had to put together an outrageously good postseason run, maybe the best in NBA history."
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LeBron James has now lost 6 times in the NBA Finals, third most number of losses in NBA history among players to play at least one game in each Finals. Jerry West lost 8 while Elgin Baylor lost 7. James' 6 is also the most losses in the NBA Finals by a former MVP.
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Stephen Curry is now the 8th player with 3 titles and multiple MVPs, joining the exclusive group of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Tim Duncan.
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The Golden State Warriors are the 4th NBA team to win at least three titles in successive four seasons. The other teams are the Lakers, Celtics and Bulls.
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LeBron James finished with 748 points this postseason. That is the second-most points in a single postseason in NBA history. Michael Jordan has the most playoff score with 759 points in 1992.
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The Warriors outscored the Cavaliers by 12 points in the third quarter. This postseason, Golden State has outscored its opponents by 153 points in the 3rd quarter, the largest point difference in a single quarter in the playoffs since 1954-55 when the shot clock was introduced.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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