But throw in a 65-17 regular season, and the Warriors went 81-18 after Kevin Durant joined them, an impressive start to finish after their collapse in last year's Finals that prevented them from winning three straight championships.
Kevin Durant, the Warriors' key free-agent acquisition last offseason, averaged 35 points eight rebounds and five assists during the series - setting a record for the highest point total in a five-game playoff series - and claimed the Russell Award as the Finals Most Valuable Player.
Maybe you thought the championship was clinched almost a year ago when Kevin Durant chose to join the Golden State Warriors as a free agent.
Durant's ability to score on the roll was a huge reason the Warriors were able to score against a Cavaliers defense that slowed them down in the 2016 NBA Finals.
The thing is while his critics point to him leaving the Thunder for the team that knocked him out last season, Durant was eliminated by someone every year for nine years.
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All-Stars that season: Cousy, Russell, Sam Jones, Heinsohn, coach Red Auerbach. Durant wants his first championship.
As Durant dribbled out the clock, his validation complete in picking the right team and teammates a year ago and picking them up at the right time, my mind flashed back to a cold December night in Memphis. No time for losers 'cause we are the champions.
WESTERVELT: Or as fan Lesia Bravel put it to me, you can tell the Warriors are having fun out there, and they're really fun to watch.
Sessions denies 3rd meeting with Russians
Such interference can never be tolerated and I encourage every effort to get to the bottom of any such allegations. He said he would agree to dismiss Mueller only if there were a legitimate basis to do so.
Now that the Finals are over, the next step for the Cleveland Cavaliers is to evaluate how far away they are from the Golden State Warriors and make adjustments. I put in work, I just had to trust in it.
Brown acted as interim coach of the Warriors for most of the playoffs so him getting a ring isn't particularly surprising or interesting - this isn't the first championship ring he's won as an assistant, after all.
In the end, the Cavaliers simply did not have enough top-class talent to topple the Warriors, even with four-time league MVP James doing all he could to keep his team in it.
"And I kind of just had a good feeling, that inkling like tonight's the night to attack and get it over with".
The Warriors also did much of this without their head coach on the sideline for an extended period of this postseason.
"The way that he embraced the opportunity in the Finals, it was unbelievable", Curry said. You need that. And when we come out the beginning of Game 4 and lose shooters and turn the ball over carelessly, we're obviously not ready. "So, this is the culmination of a year where they grew together and learned each other's games and got better and better all year, and it was just phenomenal to be part of".
"Experience is the best teacher in life, and he's just experiencing and experiencing and experiencing", said James. Pretty much all their big-name guys are in their 20s, and they don't show any signs of slowing down.
STEPHANIE ABBATI: They play unselfish basketball every night, in and out, and I think that's why they are so unbelievable.
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