2017-18 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Kevin Durant. Durant won his second consecutive Finals MVP award, averaging 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game as Golden State swept Cleveland.

Series context

The 2017-18 NBA Finals marked the fourth consecutive year that Cleveland and Golden State met for the championship, an unprecedented run of Finals rematches in modern major North American sports. Golden State, still fronted by the quartet of Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, had navigated a tougher road to the Finals than in prior years, needing seven games to beat the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals after falling behind in that series. Cleveland, by contrast, endured a tumultuous regular season marked by locker-room tension and a major midseason roster overhaul, trading away several rotation players while keeping LeBron James as the singular focus of the team. The series is most remembered for its opening game. With the score tied in the closing seconds of regulation, Cleveland's George Hill missed the second of two free throws, and teammate J.R. Smith grabbed the offensive rebound but, in a widely replayed and much-criticized moment, dribbled the ball away from the basket rather than attempt a potential game-winning shot, apparently unaware the score was tied. The game went to overtime, where Golden State outscored Cleveland to win 124-114 despite a 51-point effort from LeBron James, the most points ever scored in a losing Finals effort. James was reportedly so frustrated afterward that he punched a whiteboard, injuring his hand, an injury he played through for the rest of the series without full disclosure at the time. Having let a golden opportunity slip in Game 1, Cleveland never recovered. Golden State won Games 2 and 3 comfortably and then closed out the sweep with a 108-85 win in Game 4 on June 8, 2018, clinching the franchise's third championship in four years and Durant's second straight Finals MVP. This series effectively marked the end of the Cleveland-Golden State rivalry era; LeBron James left the Cavaliers for the Los Angeles Lakers that summer, and Golden State's roster began to be reshaped by injuries the following postseason, closing the book on the four-year Finals dynasty between the two franchises. James's 51-point outburst in the Game 1 loss stood as the fifth-highest single-game scoring total in Finals history and the most points ever scored by a player on the losing side. The sweep, Golden State's third title in four seasons, was the first Finals sweep since San Antonio dispatched Cleveland in 2007, and the series' average scoring margin of 15.0 points per game set a new Finals record for largest average differential. Cleveland had entered the playoffs as the fourth seed at 50-32 after a chaotic regular season that included a blockbuster trade-deadline overhaul of half the roster, while Golden State finished 58-24 as the Western Conference's second seed. Television interest in the rematch also waned noticeably compared to the trilogy's earlier chapters, with the sweep-clinching Game 4 drawing the lowest overnight rating of the Cavaliers-Warriors Finals era, an early sign of the fatigue that had set in around a fourth straight meeting between the same two teams.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 2018 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 2018 NBA Finals
• Bleacher Report - 2018 NBA Finals Historic Performances