Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors reacts after a basket against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 12, 2017 in Oakland, California.
Durant did indeed join a ready-made contender by teaming up with two-time reigning league MVP Stephen Curry on a team that won it all in 2015 and were runners-up previous year after a season in which they had a record 73 wins in 82 games.
Steph Curry scored 34 points with 10 assists, while draining 12 of 15 from the free-throw line.
KD was relentless on both sides of the court, playing a menacing defence and igniting the league's best offence.
James, who in 2012 with Miami beat the Thunder in Durant's only other Finals, wound up with 41 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists. The Warriors won a league-record 14 consecutive games during this year's playoffs and went 16-1 overall in the postseason.
The 28-year-old Durant was the unanimous choice of the 11 media panelists for Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). People will look at Iguodala's offensive production in this game, but it was his defense as well that helped provide the spark that the Warriors needed to close out the Cavaliers in five games. "And we've witnessed his greatness and how lopsided it made things".
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In a tweet that amassed over 100,000 retweets, Smith called Durant's decision to play for GSW "weak".
Kerr was hired as the Warriors' coach on May 19, 2014 and guided the team to a 67-15 regular-season record and an National Basketball Association championship in 2014-15.
"I love it, I love the group, I love coaching them every day, and this is what I want to do for a long time. You can get lost in the daily routines and the hype of what we do on the floor and forget why we're here".
ESPN spoke with seven Las Vegas bookmakers about the topic, and five of the six bookmakers had the Warriors favored in a game between this year's Golden State team and Michael Jordan's 1995-96 Bulls team. That stung ever since, as Durant understood, because he gave up the same lead to the Warriors a round earlier with Oklahoma City. "You just pick yourself back up and you keep pushing and you keep going". "They did a great job, their front office and their players, by doing that recruiting, the things that they did in the summertime, and obviously it paid dividends".
Kevin Durant's pull-up 3-pointer over the outstretched arms of LeBron James was the turning point in the series in that it put the Cavs on their heels, forcing them to face what wound up being an unconquerable three-game deficit.
"I'm just happy for him. We were really good tonight", Durant added.
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