King James met his match in Deadly Durant

By Al S. Mendoza

 

THE reverse happened.

Not Cleveland Cavaliers speeding to a 2-0 lead but Golden State.

The Warriors would make it 3-0 before proceeding to win the NBA crown in five games.

The Cavs had a chance to rewrite history that said no team had ever come back from 0-3 to prevail, 4-3.

But they bungled it.

After being down 0-2 in the series, Cleveland appeared to win Game 3.

Starring LeBron James, the best of the bests, the Cavs held a 6-point, 113-107 lead with time expiring in Game 3.

But with the suddenness of a killer quake, the Warriors sprung back to life.

Steph Curry triggered it, scoring on a fastbreak play.

Next, Kevin Durant jumped and then struck quickly after a Cleveland miss, flinging the killer blow from afar to give the Warriors back the lead at 114-113 with mere ticks remaining.

Shaken, rattled and bewildered by the Warrior blitzkrieg, Cleveland collapsed completely as it went zero in the last 3 minutes and 10 seconds of Game 3.

In that same stretch, the Warriors blistered home with an 11-0 finish for a 118-113 victory and a 3-0 lead.

I would say that come-from-behind victory set the tone for a Warrior win and redemption after their tragic meltdown last year.

And also with that lethal loss, Cleveland’s Game 4 win missed tying the series at 2-2.

Cleveland making it 3-1 after the Game 4 victory merely delayed Golden State’s date with destiny.

Game 5 was ordained as a Warrior day for celebration in Oakland via a 4-1 triumph that made Golden State champion twice in the last three years.

It is not that LeBron James wasn’t at his best in the Finals.

On the contrary, the Cav star even surpassed his 2016 championship finish.

He averaged a triple-double performance in this year’s Finals, surpassing even Magic Johnson’s record eight triple-double feats in NBA playoffs.

What ultimately hurt Cleveland’s cause was Kevin Love’s lethargic play.

Always, if Love didn’t deliver the goods, all efforts from James and Kyrie Irving would go to waste.

Irving was virtually unstoppable, diving for loose balls in an undying support for James’ brilliance.

But not Love, though.  He wasn’t 100 percent all the way.  Sad.

But in the end, it was Durant who burst the bubble of Cleveland’s title dreams.

His triples were the stuff that not only win games but an NBA title as well. They were guided missiles that crushed Cleveland beyond recognition.

Truly, Durant, in only his rookie year with Golden State, deserves the Finals MVP trophy.

A golden moment, indeed, for the first-time NBA champ, whose first NBA Finals loss five years back as a Thunder was against King James, the Heat star then, during the Miami-Oklahoma 2012 Finals.

Revenge consummated always leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

But if only for this singular moment, Deadly Durant would not mind.

Thus, for now, King James must bow.

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