SWEEP. REPEAT. DYNASTY: Warriors blow out Cavs, claim third title in four years

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PROGRAMMING NOTE: Coverage of the Warriors 2018 Championship Parade begins Tuesday at 9:30am on NBC Sports Bay Area and streaming on NBCSportsBayArea.com.

BOX SCORE

CLEVELAND -- Of four consecutive seasons of scaling the NBA peak, totaling 411 games -- a fifth regular season, plus one game -- this was by far the most challenging, coming with the wind in their faces and a trail of bandages and blood on the rocks.

Through jet-lagged beginnings in the wake of preseason trip to China, followed by a succession of injuries requiring 32 different lineups and, last month, surviving the trial by fire of a brutal seven-game Western Conference Finals, this NBA Finals conclusion is the sweetest of all for the Warriors because it comes with as much relief as joy.

Expected to win it all, and at times buckling under the burden, the Warriors succeeded about as spectacularly as possible.

Their 108-85 rout in Game 4 Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena swept LeBron James and the rival Cavaliers into the offseason and sent the Warriors into the history books yet again, this time with back-to-back championships for the first time in franchise history and their third in four seasons.

They did it in Game 4 behind Stephen Curry’s 37 points and Kevin Durant’s triple-double, which followed his stunningly efficient performances in Games 2 and 3.

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The Warriors could not have done any of this without Draymond Green laying the foundation of the defense, Klay Thompson gritting his teeth and playing through pain or JaVale McGee reaffirming his value on a team of stars.

Barely eight months after Thompson dared to mention the word “dynasty,” suggesting it would be the driving force this season in an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area, the Warriors belong in the conversation.

They are right there with the Shaq-Kobe Lakers of the new millennium and the Larry Bird Celtics of the Hall of Fame front line, and they zoomed past the Bad Boys of Detroit and the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade Miami Heat.

The Warriors are encroaching on the territory of the Showtime Lakers of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Michael Jordan Bulls, with Scottie Pippen the trusty sidekick and Phil Jackson holding his triangle-shaped clipboard.

The Spurs? Nah, they are less a dynasty than a machine of metronomic consistency that reaches the very top, on average, once every three or four years.

Other teams have won three championships in four seasons, but none in the last 52 years -- including the aforementioned dynasties -- have done so while enduring a streak of four consecutive trips to The Finals. The last to do so, the 1966 Boston Celtics, were punctuating an absurd run of eight consecutive titles.

That was long before the NBA became the phenomenon it was 30 years ago, as Larry and Magic gave way to Michael, much less the ubiquitous global presence it is in today’s wireless world.

And now the Warriors, a franchise that spent so many years locked in the NBA’s basement, bungling draft picks, fans yearning for nothing more than occasional visits to the playoffs, have made a comeback that not only rivals anything in the NBA but stands as impressive as any in recent sports history.

“Having been through the battles in The Finals for four years now, having been through the previous series against Houston and everything else over the last few years, I think you gain from that,” coach Steve Kerr said before tipoff Friday. “You gain wisdom. You gain experience. I sense that our team is more settled going into tonight than maybe we would have been two, three years ago. I hope I'm right.”

He was. This closes a chapter of league history the likes of which have never been seen. The same two teams going at it four years in a row is unprecedented. It has been epic. It has been spicy. It has been dramatic.

The Warriors, facing in LeBron James the man widely considered the best player alive, transformed from upstart to elite. The mini-dynasty has arrived, and only the years to come will determine if it evolves to utterly complete.

Game Result/Schedule
Game 1 Warriors 124, Cavs 114 (OT)
Game 2 Warriors 122, Cavs 103
Game 3 Warriors 110, Cavs 102
Game 4 Warriors 108, Cavs 85
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