NBA: Champs again! Currys Warriors make the sweep perfect

The Golden State Warriors are NBA Champion 2018! The fourth game of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers also goes to the defending champion. At 108:85 (BOXSCORE) Stephen Curry towers above all. MVP of the series will be Kevin Durant. The Cavs are running out of air in the second half.

Even before the match, the atmosphere in the Quicken Loans Arena was very tense, mainly because of the fear that this might have been LeBron James’ last home game in Cleveland. There were various signs in the audience thanking James for his success with the Cavaliers, although it is not yet clear where the superstar will play in the coming season.

Both coaches stayed with their starting five from game 4, Cleveland wanted to make it even more exciting with the courage of despair and the noisy hall behind them. However, the first minutes clearly belonged to the guests – apart from J.R. Smith’s three-pointer, only Golden State scored at the beginning, Stephen Curry contributed 6 points to the 10-3 lead before Ty Lue took his first time-out. As a result, the Cavs ran 8-0, but then the Dubs took control again and stayed hot from downtown. Kevin Love defended himself with 9 points, it went into the quarter break with 34:25.

In the second run, however, the Dusb first went down the line. James was now more active in the game and, with the bank’s help, took the Cavs 39-38 lead, with Golden State scoring just 4 points on the scoreboard in 6:36 minutes. However, this quickly changed again. Cleveland again missed a lot, including six free throws, while Curry in particular took advantage of her lousy defense time and again. Another curry three-pointer stopped five seconds before the end at 61:52 Golden State.

This was followed by the dreaded Warriors Push in the third quarter. The Warriors expanded their lead in no time at all, Curry and Durant alternated with the scoring before the previously invisible Klay Thompson ran hot with 10 points. The Cavs could quickly see that they had lost faith that even LeBron was no longer really rebelling – so loud booing could be heard in the hall. It went into the last quarter with 86:65, so the game was actually already decided.

Curry then quickly dispelled the very last doubts with another threesome in the fourth quarter. At 4:03 minutes before the end Lue acknowledged this and took James to loud “MVP, MVP” ovations from the court

Curry finished the game as top scorer (37 points, 12/27 FG, 7/15 3FG), while Durant played a triple double (20 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists). Andre Iguodala (11) and Thompson (10) also scored in double figures. James finished the Cavs game with 23 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists, but also 6 ball losses. Love scored 13 points (4/13 FG) and 9 rebounds, J.R. Smith (10) and Rodney Hood (10, 8 rebounds) also ended up in double figures.

The Warriors won their third title in four years in a more than convincing manner. It is the first repeat in the NBA since the Heat won the title in 2012 and 2013. Durant became a final MVP, as it did last year, making it the first back-to-back MVP since James 2012 and 2013.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors 85:108, Series 0:4 (BOXSCORE)

It was quite noticeable that Curry and Durant fought an internal duel for the final MVP award. While Durant showed his all-rounder qualities, Steph attacked tirelessly and concentrated on scoring, especially from outside. His threesome at the end of the first half over LeBron should be represented in many final montages in the future. Curry should probably be able to get over the fact that KD still won the award in the end.

Hill had described his performance in Game 3 as “shitty”, so you hardly want to know what his verdict on Game 4 is. The Point Guard only hit his very first throw at the beginning of the fourth quarter and did not appear as a playmaker – on the contrary (3 points, 1/7 FG, 1 Assist). Again and again Hill acted extremely hesitantly. That was nothing.

Many innovations were not to be seen compared to the previous games. With the Cavs, it once again became apparent that the players themselves did not always know when to switch and when to tramp, communication between them remained one of their major weaknesses. For example, Nick Young got a threesome with a “free” radius of several meters, and Curry, Thompson and Co. were also regularly blank. That just wasn’t enough in the end.