Warriors! Come out and plaayyyy!
Wow. The Golden State Warriors are back in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight years after their 120-110 series-clinching win over the Dallas Mavericks.
🗣 Warriors!
— NBA (@NBA) May 27, 2022
A look from inside the arena as the @warriors accept the Oscar Robertson Trophy! #DubNation pic.twitter.com/KuOKSHPmUL
The win is sweeter when you remember where the Warriors were after their 2019 NBA Finals loss to the Toronto Raptors.
A lottery finish in 2020 and a play-in tournament flameout in 2021 wasn’t enough to stop the Warriors’ core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green from dreaming of coming back to the FInals again. The Dubs (53-29) finished the regular-season with the third-seed in the Western Conference playoffs. The 2021-22 campaign was highlighted by Curry becoming the all-time king in long-range shooting and Thompson’s long-awaited return.
To get to this point, the Warriors beat the Nuggets in a gentlemen sweep, outlasted the Grizzlies in six games, and beat the Mavericks in five games.
“This is a blessing,” Curry said. “Obviously, this is a team effort with what Draymond said, for us to be out the mix the last two years. To be where we belong back in the Finals — this is special.”
“Everything about it is special. . We know this isn’t the ultimate goal, but we have to celebrate this cause of all we went through these last three years.”
THEY’RE BACK!!! (via @SportsCenter) pic.twitter.com/2VkJClrPLg
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 27, 2022
Game 6 Thompson (32 points on eight made threes) made an early appearance to help the Warriors close out the Mavericks on Thursday’s Game. The five-time All-Star scored 19 points on five triples, giving Golden State a 17-point lead on this dagger-three that Thompson celebrated with a Curry-like shimmy.
Klay hitting the shimmy got me LITTTTT (via @NBAonTNT) pic.twitter.com/KSCf8NuMX0
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 27, 2022
In the second-half, Golden State grew their lead to as many as 25 points after Curry (15 points, nine assists) knocked down a floater. Luka Doncic (28 points, nine rebounds, six dimes) then woke up from his sleepy start and scored 15 points in the third frame, helping to engineer a 15-4 run that cut the deficit to eight points powered by back-to-back triples from Luka Magic.
Luka 🪄 with 15 points in the 3Q pic.twitter.com/NJVAPVSzm3
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) May 27, 2022
However, that’s as close as Dallas would get. The Warriors scored five straight points to bring the lead back to 15, and the Golden State Big 3 of Curry, Green (17 points, six rebounds, nine assists, including seven in the fourth), and Thompson scored 15 points to close Game 6 out, with Curry and Thompson knocking down consecutive three-pointe to build a 16-point lead with 2:02 left in the game.
“You’re going to make me emotional, man,” Thompson said, smiling from corner to corner. “It’s hard to put in words — I dreamt of this day. There were some dog days, and to be here, I’m so thankful for our squad they started the season so incredibly well, allowed us to finish out strong, and we are four wins away from a championship.”
With the WCF series wrapped up, Curry became the first-ever Magic Johnson Trophy winner. The Warriors await the winner of the Heat-Celtics series, the Celtics lead the series 3-2. Golden State will host Game 1 of the FInals when they begin on June 2.
