NBA

The Warriors seized a series-clinching 103-90 victory in Game 6 of the NBA Finals over the Boston Celtics at the TD Garden on Thursday night, ...

Jordan Poole posted 15 points and Klay Thompson added 12 points and five rebounds. The Warriors seized a series-clinching 103-90 victory in Game 6 of the NBA Finals over the Boston Celtics at the TD Garden on Thursday night, closing out the series 4-2 and becoming the 2022 NBA Champions. Warriors Defeat Celtics in Game 6 to Capture 2022 NBA Championship

Steph Curry was named finals MVP as his team won the title just two years after finishing with the league's worst record.

This team are not the most accomplished Warriors roster to have won the title but, after a tough few years, they may be the happiest. A Stephen Curry three halfway through the third quarter gave them a 22-point lead that effectively ended the game and secured Curry the first finals MVP award of a career that will end with his enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. Curry, who scored 34 in the deciding game, was brilliant for most of the series, a slight blip in Game 5 aside. Part of the reason for that slump were injuries to Curry and his long-time teammate Klay Thompson. “It’s crazy, I’m on Cloud 109 right now,” said Thompson, who missed most of the last two-and-a-half years through injury before returning to help his team to victory. The Golden State Warriors headed into TD Garden on Thursday night and beat the Boston Celtics 103-90, to win the 2022 NBA finals. The Celtics, meanwhile, were forced to hope they had one more dramatic comeback in them.

Two years after finishing with the NBA's worst record, the Golden State Warriors are back on top, finishing off the Boston Celtics in six games to capture ...

The Warriors forced stops, then kept hitting shots, and when it was time to put the Celtics away, they did. With about a minute and a half left in the first quarter, Green hit his first 3-pointer of the series to pull the Warriors within one. Poole put the icing on this sequence with a 29-foot 3-pointer on the next trip. The Warriors won their first title since 2018 and became the first team to go from the NBA's worst record to a championship in a three-season span. But what transpired over the next nine minutes defined the game, ultimately bringing the Warriors to their seventh double-digit comeback win this postseason. Heading into Game 6, Golden State was 0-3 in closeout games on the road, and the Celtics were 3-0 when facing elimination.

Steph Curry cements his claim as one of the all-time greats as the Golden State Warriors claim their fourth title in eight years by downing the Boston ...

NBA commissioner Adam Silver could not be at the game because he remained in the league's health and safety protocols related to the virus. For Golden State coach Steve Kerr, it is a ninth championship overall after winning five as a player. It is the franchise's seventh championship overall.

In the first half of Game 6, the Golden State Warriors set an NBA Finals record.

You've got to just think about executing one minute at a time, one play at a time, and that's the focus tonight." Golden State's impressive and historic run was a result of their ultra-focused approach to Game 6. Amazingly, the Warriors started the game slowly, missing shots and allowing the Celtics to build an early lead.

Underneath Boston's historic championship banners and on the Celtics' hallowed parquet floor, Curry didn't just put another ring on it but he cemented his ...

After Memphis blew out Golden State in Game 5, Curry had 29 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists to eliminate the Grizzlies in Game 6. "This is an era of play that will be defined by LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant," Thomas said. If he doesn't, wherever he is at, he's been great." If he gets to the top 10, God bless him. "As [Boston's] Cedric Maxwell said to me the other night, he goes, 'There's [32 NBA Finals MVPs]. I'm one of them.' Then, you can make the argument that there's some other people who should be in the top 10, top 15. What I do know, and I do want people to realize, is the Chamberlains, the Russells, the Kareems, the Shaqs, that's four right there. All eleven voters from a national media panel chose Curry as the MVP of the 2022 Finals. Curry finished with 34 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds in the series clincher. Game 6 was also a legacy game for the point guard. "To me, this is his crowning achievement in what's already been an incredible career." And he let opponents hear it from him too during this championship run. In six games against the Celtics, Curry averaged 31.2 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

Warriors All-NBA point guard finally adds the missing piece of hardware to his trophy collection.

He scored a finger roll and then a dagger 3-pointer with 3:17 left to restore Golden State’s lead to 15 and end Boston’s hopes. Thursday’s outing marked an impressive bounce-back performance from Game 5, in which Curry missed all nine 3-point attempts and 15 of 22 shots overall. Golden State’s superstar was a unanimous selection after averaging 31.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the series.

Stephen Curry scored 34 points and was named the NBA finals MVP as the Warriors claimed the franchise's seventh championship overall.

It was just the fifth defeat in 22 title-series appearances for Boston, which turned its season around to have a chance at this crown. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could not be at the game because he remained in the league’s health and safety protocols related to the virus. ... You knew it was a possibility, but to see it in real time. 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. Stephen Curry scored 34 points and was named the NBA finals MVP as the Warriors claimed the franchise’s seventh championship overall. That means a lot when you get to this stage.”

A dazzling performance from Stephen Curry powered the Golden State Warriors to a seventh NBA Finals crown on Thursday, securing a 103-90 victory over the ...

After cutting the Boston lead to six points at 22-16, the Warriors pulled away, with Green, Curry and Poole all rattling in three-pointers to put Golden State into a 27-22 lead at the end of the first quarter. "We were so far away from it. A dazzling performance from Stephen Curry powered the Golden State Warriors to a seventh NBA Finals crown on Thursday, securing a 103-90 victory over the Boston Celtics to clinch a 4-2 series triumph.

The Warriors are winless in three road closeout games, while the Celtics are 3-0 in elimination games. Will those trends hold and send the NBA Finals back to ...

That Klay went out trying to help the Warriors win their fourth title in 2019 against Toronto and now makes it back to the court in 2022 to actually win that fourth title in eight years? Curry wins the Finals MVP — the one all-time item missing from him ridiculous collection of accomplishments. 4 — More great defense by Wiggins on Tatum, as Wiggins closes out on a corner 3-point attempt, but doesn’t fly by. 10 — A big 18-foot jumper off the inbounds pass by Draymond Green. He’s had some timely offense for the Warriors tonight. First a 3-pointer by Brown — he’s up to 21 points on the night — cuts it to 14 off a great pass from Marcus Smart. After the teams trade buckets — including 3-pointers by Al Horford and Otto Porter Jr. — Steph Curry strikes again as good ball movement by the Warriors leads to a solid look from deep for Curry off a Draymond Green screen. 15 — Golden State leads 54-39 at the half. 18 — This is an incredible response by the Warriors and is really going to test the mental toughness of this Celtics team after being hit by such a haymaker. The lead is up to 15 as the Warriors current run is up to 21-0 and their overall run from early in the game is up to 35-8. 22 — Andrew Wiggins drains a straight-on 3 to stop the bleeding at a 12-0 run by Boston. Klay Thompson follows it up with a tough runner in the lane to cut the lead to 14-7. Whether it’s the final game of the NBA season, or if there will be one more to play Sunday in San Francisco, remains to be seen. Will those trends hold and send the NBA Finals back to San Francisco for Game 7 on Sunday?

The Golden State Warriors have won the 2022 NBA Championship following tonight's 103-90 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals at TD ...

They are second quartet, in the last 50 years, to combine for four championships joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Cooper, Magic Johnson and Kurt Rambis (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). 17 17

The Warriors restored their dynasty with a 103-90 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 6, but not since Curry's first championship in 2015 had Golden State ...

In addition to his distinction as the Warriors' best matchup defender during the postseason, Wiggins also has been an efficient shot creator on the wing for a team desperately in need of one, and has crashed the boards with authority. But with each successive dribble, Curry widened the area of engagement -- a stutter-step right, a couple of crossovers, all the while he watched Horford's feet. With the Warriors leading 91-81 in another rugged defensive standoff, Curry faced up against Horford with a narrow band of staccato dribbles in a tight spot. When he stepped up on the dais after Game 5, he was a 32-year-old vet still trying to recapture his muscle memory. He scampered around perimeter screens for catch-and-shoot looks; he drove to a pleasant spot for a midrange jumper when the Mavs chased him off the arc; he fanned out to the wing in transition for easy opportunities. "With Luka, it starts with, 'Bother him for as long of the basketball game as you possibly can.'" As Payton made his swift approach to the rim, Brooks caught him from behind, swatting him with a full windup of his right arm, nailing the soaring Warriors guard on the head. When he arrived to the Warriors last season, Payton was the consummate basketball journeyman, one who'd struggled for years to find a home in the NBA. He'd even considered leaving a playing career behind to become a video coordinator. The second had Curry coming off the bench to start each half, which would reduce the length of his time on the bench between playing time. The Warriors endured a two-year hiatus in the NBA wilderness after the departure of Kevin Durant and the extended absence of Klay Thompson due to injury, while Curry dealt with his own spate of maladies. Given the Warriors' pedigree, their return to the top of the NBA isn't a surprise -- but it was improbable. The Warriors had imposed a similar restriction when Thompson returned to action in January after two seasons away from the game.

With the Warriors winning their fourth title in eight seasons, they've provided us with a reminder that their dynasty is not over, returning to the ...

There were only two times in the decade that the NBA Finals did not feature the Lakers (1981 and 1986). Bill Russell and the Celtics won 11 championships in 12 seasons, including eight (!) in a row. The Warriors have now won four championships in six Finals appearances over a span of eight seasons. For the better part of almost 20 years, the Spurs were always a threat to win it all. The 1985-86 Celtics are one of the greatest NBA teams ever assembled. In the sports world, those rulers are known as champions, and that line of descent refers to the franchise that is crowned with the title. They're not getting any younger, but the dynasty continues. Had one of those Finals trips gone differently, things may have shaken out a bit differently here as well. They dominated their era, but it's difficult to stack their body of work up against teams that were dominant once the league was much more established with talent. The Western Conference was just a gauntlet. The dynastic aspect is about more than the championships, which there were still plenty of. Led by head coach Steve Kerr, Golden State's dynasty has revolved around the trio of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, each of whom is now a four-time champ.

Two years after finishing with the NBA's worst record, the Golden State Warriors are back on top, finishing off the Boston Celtics in six games to capture ...

The Warriors forced stops, then kept hitting shots, and when it was time to put the Celtics away, they did. With about a minute and a half left in the first quarter, Green hit his first 3-pointer of the series to pull the Warriors within one. Poole put the icing on this sequence with a 29-foot 3-pointer on the next trip. The Warriors won their first title since 2018 and became the first team to go from the NBA's worst record to a championship in a three-season span. But what transpired over the next nine minutes defined the game, ultimately bringing the Warriors to their seventh double-digit comeback win this postseason. Heading into Game 6, Golden State was 0-3 in closeout games on the road, and the Celtics were 3-0 when facing elimination.

Golden State looks flawless in clincher, Stephen Curry's legacy continues to grow and Jayson Tatum isn't quite at superstar status after rough NBA Finals.

Durant is a constant on social media and maybe in the next few days he’ll break his Warriors’ silence. Durant was on two of those teams, won Finals MVP both times and then in the summer of 2019 bailed for Brooklyn in free agency, essentially trading Curry for Kyrie Irving. That unit eventually won this championship because, other than Curry and Wiggins, the Warriors lacked consistency from the rotation. He helped elevate the confidence of Andrew Wiggins, dumped by his former team in Minnesota and mostly dismissed by the basketball world as an underachiever. He took over for Mark Jackson and won a championship, and then again eight years later, all without much experience on the bench prior to this job. He was spooked by his constant mistakes, didn’t even attempt a free throw and wasn’t heard from in the fourth. This is what he learned about himself in the Finals, and there’s no particular shame in falling short. Tatum was not against the Warriors, and was especially exposed in Game 6, when he went out meekly. After a three-year delay caused by injuries and a noticeable defection — more on him later — the Warriors returned to the throne and carried on like they never really left. The Warriors were up 15 at halftime, 22 in the third and 10 entering the fourth. So his story, and the debate, isn’t finished. The Warriors set out to reclaim the title on this journey of redemption and got their just reward.

Boston Celtics players lamented the pain of falling short in the NBA Finals but said they'll use the experience to help them contend for titles again in the ...

Now, the Celtics will head into the summer thinking about what might have been and excited about where this franchise is headed after making it to the NBA Finals for the first time in 12 years. Continuing to get better, continuing to find different ways to lead. Personally, I still got a lot to learn. That means we still got a lot to learn. I'm viewing it and looking at all the s--- we had to get through to get here just to even get to this situation to have an opportunity." Got to be better. "That was part of the message. "It don't stop hurting," he said, when asked when he will begin moving on from this loss. Trying, though, wasn't enough to solve the puzzles Golden State presented this Boston team. One of them was clearly Tatum, who looked like he didn't want to speak for most of his postgame news conference. In the game's opening minutes, it looked like Boston would be in business. But, as Jayson Tatum said, it was Boston's poise on the offensive end that repeatedly failed the Celtics, as they committed one turnover after another.

The Golden State Warriors are NBA Champions! Here are the latest reactions from around the league:.

You are a champion!!! Wow@22wigginsyou played your ass off my man….salute to you bro and congrats. — kuz (@kylekuzma)June 17, 2022

Stephen Curry has starred for the Golden State Warriors, who beat Boston Celtics 103-90 in Game 6 to win their seventh NBA title and fourth in eight years.

... You knew it was a possibility, but to see it in real time. Jayson Tatum finished with 13 points, but shot just six of 18 from the field. "It was dog days, a lot of tears shed. "It all paid off," Thompson said. For Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, it's a fourth championship. "It's part of a championship pedigree, our experience.

Golden State upholds the old adage that defense wins championships with a stifling performance to finish off Boston.

Player shooting Player shooting Player stats Player stats Green was the straw that stirred the drink, Andrew Wiggins kept Jayson Tatum in check (37% shooting) and the Warriors met nearly every Celtics drive with multiple bodies and arms. The Celtics actually shot 40.8% from 3-point range — their best mark in any of their four series — in the Finals. But they shot just 49.3% in the paint, their worst six-game stretch of interior shooting this season. After a great start to the season, the Warriors’ defense fell off when Draymond Green was out for two months. The Celtics also had the league’s best offense (120.7 points per 100) as they went 26-6 to close the regular season. And appropriately, the Celtics went out with 23 miscues in Game 6 to tie for the third most of any team in these playoffs. These were the two best defensive teams in the regular season. Games 5 and 6 of the Finals marked the only instance this season that Boston was held to fewer than a point per possession in two straight games. That is the Celtics’ worst three-game stretch of offense this season, including the playoffs.

Golden State defeating the Boston Celtics to secure yet another NBA title elicits reactions across social media.

Naaa Steph— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) June 17, 2022 🏆— Arike Ogunbowale (@Arike_O) June 17, 2022 The Warriors captured their fourth title in eight seasons, the first team to achieve that feat since the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls (1991 to '98), according to ESPN Stats & Information research. WELP!— Tyrese Maxey (@TyreseMaxey) June 17, 2022 Today a new Golden light shines over the NBA world. Stephen Curry led Golden State with 34 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.

'May never get this close again': Image reveals sad Celtics reality as NBA star's 'let down' laid bare.

That was part of the message: Let it propel us forward,” Udoka said post-match. Steph Curry claimed the 2022 NBA Finals Bill Russell MVP after another dominant showing in Game 6, pouring in a game-high 34 points. That stuff never goes away.

It took six attempts, but Golden State superstar Stephen Curry was named NBA Finals MVP after the Warriors recorded their fourth title win in eight years.

This one here's different for sure." And that's what this is about." This one here's different.

The Warriors' pandemic-era decline and the uncertainty that once surrounded their biggest stars are enough to make this title a genuine feelgood story.

And they’re still a franchise built for the pleasure and enrichment of early-stage investors in Amazon and Palantir. But somehow, in spite of all that, this Warriors team feels distinct, less straightforwardly unsympathetic than the back-to-back champions of Durant and co. The old belligerence is still there – the elbows, the shoves, the buttocks thrust aggressively across the lane – and the trash talk remains unrivaled, even in victory (there was a typically chesty description of the NBA as “the Warriors invitational” on the victory podium last night), but the effect is now curiously endearing: to see the man doing his thing again after these few years away is like watching an old uncle get mad at the TV remote for not working properly. But what was most striking about this devastating surge was the identity of its orchestrators: not Curry or Thompson but Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins, who together put together a sequence of big threes, torrential dunks, and critical blocks to take the game – and the championship – definitively away from the Celtics. These rising Warriors are not only capable but personable, and the effect seems to be rubbing off on the team as a whole. After a Game 5 devoid of a single Curry maximum – a true collector’s item – the maestro’s hands returned to him last night: not for the first time in the NBA finals, and surely not for the last, the game’s second half became its own kind of athletic weather system as a delicate, relentless rain of threes issued from the fingertips of Wardell Stephen Curry II. But Curry has also been deadly in these finals without the ball in hand, lifting his teammates even when he has shot poorly: in Game 5, Curry’s teammates shot 63% from the field when he was on the court v 22% when he was off, continuing a series-long trend. And then there’s Curry, still bouncy after 13 seasons in the NBA, still boyish at 34 – the man with the guard permanently hanging out of his mouth, and the ball perpetually on its way through the net. The Warriors entered their flop era, finishing last in the Western Conference in 2019-20 (with a record of 15-50) and again failing to make the playoffs, despite a marginal regular season improvement, in 2020-21. It’s fitting that a series marked by the unusual volatility of its scoring patterns – Boston’s comeback in the final quarter of Game 1 will live long in the memory – was capped by the longest run in an NBA finals game in 50 years. The likability of these Warriors, resurgent and resplendent once more, is mostly a function of how far they had fallen, how much they suffered, how deeply they – to use Green’s own term of art – “sucked.” But it also says something about the reconstitution of a team that has shown it can get it done with young talent, without needing to rely on the mercenary brilliance of an off-the-shelf superstar like Durant. The team that had made Oakland its home turned its back on the “bad” side of the Bay and ran headlong into the puffer-vested embrace of the San Francisco tech elite. The Warriors – data-driven, unemotional, technocratic, bombing their opponents from beyond the three-point line, and drawn into an ever-deepening alliance with Silicon Valley – seemed to typify something about the distance that different elements of American society had taken from each other since the turn of the century. The reasons for this near-universal dismissal are not hard to comprehend, since the Warriors over the previous two seasons have had the rare distinction of being both intensely disliked and very bad at basketball. “I didn’t learn anything about myself, I knew I was resilient,” said Draymond Green, on the victory podium at Boston’s TD Garden, when asked to reflect on how his understanding of himself and his teammates had changed over the course of these finals.

The draft and free agency could change the entire landscape of the NBA, and yet it's never too soon to look ahead at the 2022-23 season with some good old ...

OKC needs to see how the No. 2 overall pick fits in alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey and Lu Dort. SGA is quietly already entering his fifth season and though he looks like a star in the making, don't be surprised to hear the Thunder involved in rumors with teams interested in the soon-to-be 24-year old. There's already talk about them using the No. 4 pick in the draft to acquire a win-now player. Why they're here: The Knicks overachieved in 2020-21 and came back down to earth in 2021-22. Why they're here: San Antonio has now been knocked out in the Play-In Tournament in back-to-back seasons. Now comes the hard part — cracking the upper echelon of the Western Conference. Karl-Anthony Towns' best years are still ahead of him and Anthony Edwards is a star in the making, but they have a big decision to make with D'Angelo Russell, who is extension eligible this offseason. They're returning the same roster next season with one key addition: Zion Williamson. Fingers crossed Zion can get back to dominating the paint in a way we haven't seen since Shaq. Why they're here: The Heat earned the best record in the Eastern Conference and were a Jimmy Butler 3-pointer away from their second trip to the Finals in three seasons. Expect Russell Westbrook trade chatter to remain in the news cycle throughout the offseason so long as he remains on the roster. Why they're here: The Jazz came up short again in the playoffs and enter an important offseason. Why they're here: The Suns ran away with the best record in the NBA, but it all came crumbling down with a Game 7 collapse to the Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs. Who knows how the season would've ended for the Bucks had Khris Middleton not missed their entire second-round series with the Celtics that went the distance. In addition to the 2022 NBA Draft being only a few days away, free agency opens at the end of the month.

After winning the 2022 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors are listed as one of three favorites to win it all next season.

Still, it's hard not to like the Warriors' chances of hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy again in 2023. Then there are the Mavericks, Nuggets and Grizzlies all lurking as well. Golden State is the most recent NBA team to win back-to-back championships, doing so in 2017 and 2018.

Returning to the mountaintop wasn't easy for the Golden State Warriors - but now the new NBA champions are ready to stay there for a while.

That's scary for the NBA." "That's the beautiful thing about it. They took that core and fortified it with a new group of talent. And absolutely, Curry can still be unstoppable in the biggest moments. A lot of unknowns." - was already coming up.

The Warriors are NBA champions. What's next? Let's break down where all 30 teams stand heading into the draft and free agency.

The Pistons found their centerpiece in the draft one year ago, selecting Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 overall pick. The 2008-09 Coach of the Year has made the playoffs in five of his seven years as the top guy, not to mention countless runs as an assistant. Another year, another Knicks lottery pick and hopes among the team's fanbase of landing a big star in a trade. San Antonio has a young core in place with Dejounte Murray, Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell. Add in the picks and cap space, and they have a chance to get back to the playoffs in 2022-23. The easiest way to do so is by waiving Danilo Gallinari, who is set to be paid $21.5 million in 2022-23, since only $5 million is guaranteed. Once the pride of the franchise for his development as a fierce competitor in the wake of LeBron James' departure, Sexton has been leapfrogged as a prospect by All-Star Darius Garland and Rookie of the Year runner-up Evan Mobley. It will be fascinating to see what the market will be for him after knee surgery limited him to just 11 games last year. There's an anticipation around the league that Rudy Gobert will get traded this summer, but the Jazz have sent strong signals that they won't settle for anything but a massive haul in return for the perennial All-Star center. The Bulls returned to relevance in 2021-22, making the postseason for the first time in four years behind a career year from DeMar DeRozan. Now comes the hard part: elevating from being merely good to competing for a championship. After returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and giving the Memphis Grizzlies a scare in the opening round, Minnesota has all eight players who saw at least 70 minutes of action in the series under contract for 2022-23. The Clippers are expected to be title contenders with Kawhi Leonard set to return after missing all of last season while rehabbing a torn ACL. A healthy Leonard and Paul George are as good as any duo in the league, but their supporting cast is arguably deeper than ever. Kleiman has more difficult decisions to make regarding the free agency of Tyus Jones and Kyle Anderson, a pair of veterans who have been quality role players, as well as how aggressive to be in the trade market, where the Grizzlies' first-round picks acquired in previous deals could be valuable commodities. Ultimately, though, Boston's loss to the Warriors in the NBA Finals was proof of the growth that's still left for this group to get where it wants to go - namely at the offensive end of the court.

NBA Academy graduates Dyson Daniels, Hyunjung Lee and Bennedict Mathurin are climbing up NBA Draft boards.

“Bennedict is a true NBA Academy pioneer, as he was the first-ever Canadian prospect to join the program, setting the stage for several others to follow in his footsteps,” Ebersole said. We’re proud of Lee and excited for him as he embarks on his NBA journey.” The 19-year-old wing is explosive and made several highlight-reel plays with the Wildcats. He competes and has a good enough jumper to play the two. “The leaps that Dyson has made with his game speak to his professional approach and his desire to get better every day. We are excited to watch their continued success at the NBA level.” When the 2022 NBA Draft is held on Thursday, three more former academy graduates are expected to have their names called.

Returning to the mountaintop wasn't easy for the Golden State Warriors - but now the new NBA champions are ready to stay there for a while. Tim Reynolds / ...

That's scary for the NBA." "That's the beautiful thing about it. They took that core and fortified it with a new group of talent. And absolutely, Curry can still be unstoppable in the biggest moments. A lot of unknowns." - was already coming up.