Defence won golden state the title: Kerr

BOSTON • The Golden State Warriors sealed their place as one of the National Basketball Association's great dynasties, with Thursday's 103-90 Finals Game 6 win over the Boston Celtics to clinch their fourth championship in eight seasons.

The 4-2 series victory brought the visitors a seventh overall championship. That broke a tie with the Chicago Bulls for sole possession of third place in the all-time winners list, behind the Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, who both have 17 titles.

The Warriors are also the first team to win four championships in an eight-year span since the Bulls won six from 1991 to 1998.

The success represents a remarkable turnaround for Golden State, who missed the play-offs in the past two seasons amid a torrent of injuries and the departure of Kevin Durant to the Brooklyn Nets.

They spent the last two summers rebuilding, acquiring key pieces like Andrew Wiggins and bringing Jordan Poole through the developmental pipeline. Their winning momentum never stalled en route to play-off wins over the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and then the Celtics to claim the Larry O'Brien trophy.

Stephen Curry led the way for the Warriors with a team-high 34 points, seven assists and seven rebounds to claim his fourth title and first Finals Most Valuable Player award.

"I'm so proud of our group," an emotional Curry said, as he reflected on the many critics that felt the dynasty was done in 2019.

"At the beginning of the season, nobody thought we would be here except everybody on this court. We were so far away from it.

"We hit rock bottom with injuries and the long road of work ahead and trying to fill in the right pieces and the right guys. You can't ever take this for granted because you never know when you're going to get back here."

Teammate Klay Thompson, one half of the "Splash Brothers" alongside Curry, was just as ecstatic.

The guard returned from a 31-month injury absence only in January and his journey embodied the Warriors' unlikely return to the summit, after their NBA title runs in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

"I was feeling just so high on life that I did not want to leave the stage, and I just know how hard this is, and to be here for a fourth time, like so grateful for my teammates," Thompson said.

"I saw it in the beginning of season. People called me crazy. I said championship or bust, because I saw how we came out of the gate.

"And playing just that Warriors' brand of basketball that made us so successful, and then knowing I was going to be inserted in that, I knew we had a chance to do something special, and here we are."

With their backs to the wall in Game 6, Boston raced out to a 12-2 lead with a three-pointer by Jayson Tatum whipping the green-and-white clad fans at TD Garden into a frenzy.

But the more experienced Warriors squad kept chipping away and a three-pointer from Curry gave the visitors a 24-22 lead late in the first quarter.

A Boston turnover led to a Wiggins jam that capped a 21-0 run in the second quarter for the Warriors and the lead was 18 points when Draymond Green found Thompson under the basket for an easy lay-up.

Leading 54-39 at half-time, the road team did not look back.

Curry knocked down a three-pointer from well beyond the arc to give the Warriors their largest lead of the night at 72-50 with six minutes to go in the third, pointing at his finger to show where his fourth championship ring should go.

The young Celtics team tried to claw their way back but their cause was not helped by 22 turnovers that led to 20 Warriors points, while they also lost the rebounding battle.

While Boston's defence was talked up coming into the series, it was Golden State's resistance that proved the difference.

The Warriors had looked to be in trouble early in the Finals as poor shooting saw them trail 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, but they got back into the contest and bested their opponents by tightening up on the other end of the court.

"What got this team over the hump was our defence," coach Steve Kerr said. "They're (the four titles) all unique. They're all special.

"I think this one may have been the most unlikely just from the standpoint of where we've been the last couple years. It takes a full team effort to do this."

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE.