BOSTON — It seems the dynasty had simply been paused.
Golden State has gained the N.B.A. championship once more, 4 seasons after its final one. It is the franchise’s seventh title and the fourth for its three superstars: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who’ve spent the previous decade rising up collectively, profitable collectively and, over the previous three years, studying how fragile success will be.
On Thursday, they defeated the Boston Celtics, 103-90, in Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals. They gained the collection, 4-2, and celebrated their clinching victory on the parquet flooring of TD Garden, beneath 17 championship banners, in entrance of a throng of disillusioned partisans.
With 24 seconds left within the sport, Curry discovered his father close to the baseline, hugged him and shook as he sobbed in his arms. Then Curry turned again towards the sport. He put his palms on his head and squatted down, then fell onto the court docket.
“I think I blacked out,” Curry mentioned later.
He thought in regards to the previous few months of the playoffs, in regards to the previous three years, in regards to the individuals who didn’t assume he might be right here once more.
“You get goose bumps just thinking about all those snapshots and episodes that we went through to get back here,” Curry mentioned.
Curry, who scored 34 factors within the clinching sport, was named probably the most invaluable participant of the finals. It was the primary time in his profession he’s gained the award.
“Without him, none of this happens,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr mentioned. “To me, this is his crowning achievement.”
Boston put up a battle.
The Celtics took a 14-2 lead to open the sport, taking part in higher than they did of their lackluster begin to Game 5, however Golden State’s firepower threatened to overwhelm them. For almost six minutes of taking part in time from late within the first quarter till early within the second, Boston couldn’t rating.
Golden State constructed a 21-point lead within the second quarter, and saved that cushion early within the third.
With 6 minutes 15 seconds left within the third, Curry hit his fifth 3 of the sport, giving his crew a 22-point lead. He held out his proper hand and pointed at its ring finger, certain he was on his method to incomes his fourth championship ring.
The second might need motivated the Celtics, who responded with a 12-2 run. Ultimately, although, they’d an excessive amount of floor to get well.
Golden State celebrated after two seasons of subpar information, one which made it the worst crew within the N.B.A. Its gamers and coaches spent these seasons ready for Thompson’s accidents to heal, for Curry’s (fewer) accidents to heal and for brand spanking new or younger items of their roster to develop into taking over vital roles.
When they turned entire once more, the three-player core talked about cementing its legacy.
They had been a lot youthful when their journeys collectively started. Golden State drafted Curry in 2009, Thompson in 2011 and Green in 2012.
Curry was 27 once they gained their first championship collectively in 2015. Thompson and Green had been each 25.
That season was additionally Kerr’s first because the crew’s coach.
Golden State went 67-15 and breezed by means of the playoffs to the N.B.A. finals, having no concept how exhausting getting there might be. The subsequent 12 months the crew set a league document with 73 regular-season wins however misplaced in a return journey to the finals. Kevin Durant joined the crew in free company that summer time, and Golden State gained the subsequent two championships, turning into hailed as one of many biggest groups in N.B.A. historical past.
The champions grew as folks and as gamers throughout this stretch. Curry and Green added kids to their households. They had been rock stars on the highway, with swarms of followers ready for them at their resorts. Three championships in 4 seasons made Golden State appear invincible.
Only accidents might cease them.
The dynastic run led to devastating style in 2019 throughout their fifth consecutive finals look. Durant had been combating a calf harm, then tore his proper Achilles’ tendon in Game 5 of the finals in opposition to Toronto and left the crew for the Nets within the low season. Thompson tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee through the subsequent sport. The Raptors gained the championship that day.
“It was the end of an era at Oracle,” Curry mentioned, referring to Golden State’s former area in Oakland, Calif. The crew moved to Chase Center in San Francisco in 2019. He added: “You’re getting ready for the summer, trying to regroup and figure out what’s going to happen next year.”
The two seasons of futility that adopted had been troublesome for all of them, however no extra so than for Thompson, who additionally tore his proper Achilles’ tendon through the fall of 2020, sidelining him for an extra 12 months.
During this 12 months’s finals, he has usually thought of that journey.
“I wouldn’t change anything,” Thompson mentioned. “I’m very grateful and everything I did to that point led to this.”
Heading into this season, Golden State wasn’t anticipated to return to this stage so quickly. This was notably true as a result of heading into the season, Thompson’s return date was unclear.
But then, hope. Golden State opened the 2021-22 marketing campaign by profitable 18 of its first 20 video games. The crew had discovered a gem in Gary Payton II, who had been forged apart by different groups due to his dimension or as a result of he wasn’t a standout 3-point shooter. Andrew Wiggins, acquired in a 2020 commerce with Minnesota, Kevon Looney, who was drafted weeks after that 2015 championship, and Jordan Poole, a late-first-round decide in 2019, confirmed why the crew valued them a lot.
Curry set a profession document for 3-pointers and mentored the crew’s youthful gamers.
Who might say how good this crew is perhaps as soon as Thompson returned?
That reply got here within the playoffs.
Golden State beat the Denver Nuggets in 5 video games, and the Memphis Grizzlies in six. Then Dallas took just one sport from Golden State within the Western Conference finals.
Curry, Thompson and Green, the engine of 5 straight finals runs, got here into this 12 months’s championship collection fully modified.
“The things that I appreciate today, I didn’t necessarily appreciate those things then,” Green mentioned. “In 2015, I hated taking pictures and, you know, I didn’t really put two and two together. Like, man, these memories are so important.”
They vowed not to take without any consideration any a part of the finals expertise, even the unfavourable elements.
Throughout the collection, Boston followers chanted at Green utilizing an expletive. During the champagne celebration within the postgame locker room, his teammates mimicked them.
“It’s beautiful,” Green mentioned. “You embrace the tough times, and that’s what we do and that’s how we come out on top. For us, it was a beautiful thing. To hear my teammates chant that, it don’t get much better than that.”
They confronted a Boston Celtics crew that was younger, similar to they had been in 2015, led by the 20-somethings Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, shepherded by the elder statesman Al Horford. The Celtics did nearly all the pieces the exhausting method as they sought the storied franchise’s 18th championship.
They swept the Nets within the first spherical however went to seven video games in opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat. They gained once they had to, and dedicated too many careless turnovers once they didn’t.
Boston was the youthful, stronger and extra athletic crew within the finals. The Celtics didn’t worry Golden State, or the grand stage, and proved it by profitable Game 1 on the highway. Until Game 5, the Celtics had not misplaced back-to-back video games within the playoffs.
Curry had his method in opposition to Boston’s protection in Game 4, scoring 43 factors. Then in Game 5, the Celtics stymied his efforts, solely to have his teammates make up the bottom he misplaced.
At a information convention Wednesday afternoon, Green recalled a second throughout Golden State’s flight to Boston from San Francisco between Games 5 and 6. He, Thompson and Curry had been sitting collectively once they had been noticed by Bob Myers, the crew’s common supervisor and president of basketball operations.
“He’s like: ‘Man, y’all are funny. Y’all still sit together. Y’all don’t understand, it’s 10 years. Like, this does not happen. Guys still sitting together at the same table,’” Green recalled. “He’s like, ‘Guys are not even on the same team for 10 years, let alone still sitting there at the same table and enjoying each other’s conversation and presence.’”
At a separate information convention a couple of minutes later, Thompson was requested about that second and why the three of them nonetheless take pleasure in one another’s firm. Curry stood in opposition to a wall, watching, ready for his flip to communicate.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Thompson mentioned. “I owe Draymond some money in dominoes, so I don’t want to see him too many times.”
Curry bent on the waist, doubled over with quiet laughter.
“I was half asleep,” Thompson continued. “Draymond and Bob were chatting their hearts away for six hours on a plane ride. I was just trying to get some sleep.”
Curry mentioned later, “All the personalities are so different. Everybody comes from different backgrounds. But we’ve all jelled around a collective unit of how we do things, whether it’s in the locker room, on the plane, the hotels, like whatever it is. We know how to have fun and jell and keep things light but also understand what we’re trying to do and why it all matters in terms of winning games.”
The subsequent day they gained their fourth championship collectively. They gathered in a crowd and jumped round collectively. When Curry gained finals M.V.P., they chanted “M-V-P” together with everybody else onstage.
Long after the celebration ended, Thompson and Curry remained up there collectively, sitting collectively at instances, dancing collectively at instances. Thompson seemed down off the stage and mentioned he didn’t need to go away.
Curry descended earlier than Thompson did, however first he stood on the highest step. He held a cigar between his lips, and clutched the M.V.P. trophy in his left hand.
