Clutch Warriors win had roots in heartbreaking NBA

From clutch heroics to poise under pressure, the Golden State Warriors used lessons learned in last year's heartbreaker NBA Finals loss to Cleveland to take care of business this time.

Kevin Durant scored 31 points while Klay Thompson added 30 and Stephen Curry contributed 28 as the Warriors rallied Wednesday to beat the Cavaliers 118-113 and seize a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven championship showdown.

The Warriors, who are on an NBA record 15-0 playoff win streak, could dethrone LeBron James and his teammates and become the first champions in league history to make an undefeated run through the playoffs.

But it comes by recalling the pain of last year's finals. The Warriors had seized a 3-1 lead on the Cavaliers only to have James lead the greatest rally in NBA Finals history, becoming the first team to win the championship after trailing 3-1.

Among the lessons learned were patience and control. Warriors forward Draymond Green was suspended for game five and Golden State lost at home, then on the road, then in an all-or-nothing game seven last year.

In game three, Green aroused some concern when he began complaining about a foul call to a referee and Curry did the same. 

"Basketball is a feisty sport," Curry said. "The crowd was giving them a lot of energy and those guys came out with a lot of force. And sometimes that brings some commotion out there between two teams. So it's nothing personal, it's nothing serious. We moved on.

"Draymond got a tech, he gathered, got it back together, we moved on. So it just didn't linger. We didn't let a call we didn't like or a turnover or a missed assignment linger over to the next play."

Green took it hard when the Cavaliers took advantage of his absence in game five to win and captured games six and seven.

"We learned from our mistakes," Green said. "There's going to be some stuff and you just got to kind of persevere and get through it.

"We've grown and matured just mentally of how to just pace yourself through and take every day as a new experience and something that you can kind of take control of."

"Obviously it's working and we have to keep that keyhole mentality of: What's next?"

The heartache, as much as the addition of star forward Durant, has made the Warriors all the more stronger now, even in snatching defeat from victory's jaws last year.

"We're better from our experiences," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "You win a championship, then you lose one in heartbreaking fashion, you've pretty much seen everything at that point."

And that helped build chemistry between Durant and 3-point sharpshooters Curry and Thompson as they unite for an NBA title, the first for Durant.

"We know what's at stake and that's an NBA title. So we won't be tired because we got adrenaline on our side and we got to act like this is a do-or-die situation," Thompson said.

"We don't want to go back to the Bay and win it. We want to finish it here and forget this game quickly and lock in and get ready for a battle on Friday."

Source: AFP