Warriors dethrone Cavaliers for second title in three years

The Warriors, powered by 39 points from Kevin Durant and 34 from Stephen Curry, beat defending champions Cleveland 129-120 yesterday to win the best-of-seven NBA Finals four games to one, avenging their loss to the Cavaliers in last year's final.

But he offered a glimpse of what more he could offer by averaging more than 30 points per game during a 4-1 series win over the Cavaliers in the Finals.

Golden State beat Cleveland in the 2015 Finals only to lose to them past year, squandering a 3-1 series lead. They finished one victory short of the NBA's first flawless postseason, but bounced back from their Game 4 loss to Cleveland in the NBA Finals with another high-scoring performance.

"I couldn't sleep for two days", Durant told reporter Doris Burke. "I was anxious. I was jittery. I just wanted to lay it all out there". "So for us to be able to do it in front of our home crowd, something I'll remember for a very long time".

"It feels great to win, but to go against somebody I view as like a rival, personally, is an fantastic feeling to beat him", Durant said.

Their run was better than anything Bill Russell or Larry Bird did in Boston, so they should be able to claim a spot on the list of the NBA's best teams ever.

The Warriors recorded an ominous, 15-game playoffs winning streak and finished off the season with and NBA-best 16-1 record.

The first-time title victor scored 39 points as point guard Stephen Curry posted 34 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.

At the time, Durant called the leadup to his decision the most challenging few weeks of his National Basketball Association career, and even said it was not about winning titles but about personal growth and quality-of-life choices. His Cavaliers were 36 points per 100 possessions better with him on the court than off against the Warriors, and he played 42 minutes per game.

He also added 8.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists a game. From my eyes, they're built to last a few years. "You have to tip your hat to Cleveland", he added. "I thought they gave everything they had, and we fought, we competed, and we never gave in, but they beat us". "We left everything on the floor and it still wasn't enough", said James.

So we're obviously just getting started, this is something that we want to continue to do, but for us to have these conversations that we had nearly a year ago and now being in this position, worth every shot we took in practice, fighting through injuries that he had this year, and it's an unbelievable feeling.

"Steph definitely took a back seat to the start the season until he realized we didn't need him to take a back seat", Draymond Green said. Golden State is a worthy opponent. While the Warriors didn't surpass their National Basketball Association record of 73 regular-season from 2016 (they settled for 67 this year), they still had the NBA's best regular-season record.

Sports affiliate Pro Football Talk -it doesn't make sense to me either - reports the Warriors have already made the decision less than a day after closing out a 4-1 series win over the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday night. "So for me personally, I have no reason to put my head down". And with the team's core lineup all in their prime, it looks like they could remain at championship caliber for several more seasons. They dropped the NBA Finals opener to league MVP Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers, then took the next four games.