Warriors Win 2018 NBA Finals: Score, Celebration Highlights and Twitter Reaction
Adam Wells@adamwells1985
Featured ColumnistJune 9, 2018
The party is on once again for the Golden State Warriors after they captured their third championship in four years with a 108-85 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
With the Warriors clinching on the road, fans in Oracle Arena were able to celebrate their team's title while watching the Jumbotron:
LeBron James was gracious in defeat, as this image from Game 4 shows from when James checked out for the final time:
A close battle for the honor of being crowned NBA Finals MVP went in Kevin Durant's favor for the second consecutive year. The nine-time All-Star went out in style by recording his first-career triple-double in the Finals with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
Right behind Durant on the list of MVP candidates was Stephen Curry, who scored a game-high 37 points in the clincher. The two-time NBA MVP had numbers in the series that would normally be good enough to earn the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award:
Durant's second straight Finals MVP trophy put him in a group that includes five other players in NBA history:
Whittling that list down even further, Durant has now done something that had only been accomplished by Michael Jordan prior to this year:
While most of the Warriors core players have been in this position before, Nick Young, who signed with the team last summer, got to delight in capturing his first NBA title after 12 years in the league:
Don't worry, though. Winning a championship hasn't changed Young's personality, as you can see from this quote:
Just because this has become old hat for players like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green doesn't mean they aren't exhilarated by the chance to lift the Larry O'Brien trophy and celebrate with their teammates:
Klay had some fun with his father, Mychal Thompson, who won two NBA titles in his 13-year career:
The entire Warriors franchise has a lot to boast about right now. It just finished off arguably the greatest four-year run in NBA history:
Wherever the history books end up putting these Warriors, there is no doubt they are the class of this era of NBA basketball. There are 29 other teams trying to build a roster that can compete with theirs.
Only one team has found the right formula in the past four years, but that hiccup against the Cavs in 2016 is a distant memory for the Warriors after winning back-to-back titles.