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BOSTON — The Golden State Warriors are NBA champions once again, topping the Boston Celtics 103-90 on Thursday night for their fourth title in the last eight seasons.
Stephen Curry scored 34 points for the Warriors, who claimed the franchise’s seventh championship. And this one completed a journey unlike any other after a run of five consecutive Finals, then a plummet to the bottom of the NBA and now a return to greatness just two seasons after having the league’s worst record.
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For Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, it’s a fourth championship. The first three came in 2015, 2017 and 2018, when the Warriors were dynastic and made five consecutive trips to the Finals.
Curry was named the Finals MVP for the first time.
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Injuries, including ones that sidelined Thompson for 2 ½ years, and roster changes changed everything. But this season, with Thompson returning around the midway point, the Warriors were finally back.
Back on top too. Champions again, denying the storied Celtics what would have been their record 18th championship, one that would have allowed them to break a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.
This tale for the Warriors ended much differently than what was their most recent Finals appearance against the Toronto Raptors in 2019, one that saw Kevin Durant tear his Achilles in Game 5 and then Thompson tear his ACL in what became the Raptors’ title-clincher in Game 6.
The aftermath of that loss was exacerbated by Durant’s decision to leave that summer in free agency to join the Brooklyn Nets and Thompson’s Achilles injury while rehabilitating his knee injury.
It thrust a Warriors team into a rebuild that became a reload. The Warriors used their two-year hiatus from the NBA’s biggest stages to retool their roster — adding a past No. 1 draft pick in Andrew Wiggins, who excelled in his first Finals, along with another rising star in Jordan Poole.
It all clicked. For coach Steve Kerr, it’s a ninth championship overall after winning five as a player. He’s the sixth coach to capture four titles, joining Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, John Kundla, Gregg Popovich and Pat Riley.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 34 points. Al Horford added 19. Jayson Tatum finished with 13 points but shot just 6 of 18 from the field. The Celtics also committed 22 turnovers, dropping to 1-8 this postseason when committing 16 or more.
It was just the fifth defeat in 22 title-series appearances for the Celtics, who turned its season around to have a chance at this crown. The Celtics were 25-25 after 50 games, then went on an absolute tear to get to the Finals and nearly claim what would have been just the franchise’s second championship since 1986.
