Wiggins key to Warriors' revival

SAN FRANCISCO • The Golden State Warriors will return to the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals for the first time since 2019 after defeating the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.

The hosts won the series 4-1 with a 120-110 victory on Thursday in San Francisco, with Stephen Curry named the Most Valuable Player of the Western Conference Finals, a new honour this season.

Because of injuries, the Warriors had spent the past two seasons wandering through the wilderness.

But their celebrated core - Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green - is together again and playing some of their best basketball, no small achievement considering the team's triumphant past, when they reached five successive NBA Finals from 2015-19, winning three of them.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing our guys compete and stay connected and improve and succeed," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. "We've been through a lot the last couple of years, so it's wonderful to be back in this position."

Things began to come unglued for one of the greatest dynasties after they lost the 2019 NBA Finals to the Toronto Raptors.

With Kevin Durant leaving for the Brooklyn Nets and Curry sidelined by a broken hand, they finished the next season with the worst record in the league.

Thompson tore his Achilles tendon before the start of the 2020-21 campaign and the Warriors again missed out on the play-offs.

Behind the scenes, though, they were building towards the future.

In February 2020, the Warriors traded for Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 draft pick in 2014 who had never quite fulfilled his seemingly vast potential with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The forward would prove he could do a bit of everything - shoot, pass, rebound, defend.

Kerr described the trade for Wiggins as "the key to all of this".

"So the Wiggins trade allowed us to start to rebuild that wing defence," he said. "He's a perfect fit next to our guys."

This season, Wiggins was a first-time All-Star as Golden State went 53-29, the third-best record in the West. There were other meaningful moments on the way to the NBA Finals - Curry broke the league record for career three-pointers and Thompson, after 941 days away, made his long-anticipated return from injury.

"I felt like we had a chance to be a lot better than we were in the regular season," Kerr said. "We believed from the beginning that we could be a pretty good team, and we're catching some momentum now and trying to ride it out as best we can."

NYTIMES