Lowell Cohn: Warriors heading home to clinch a repeat NBA championship

CLEVELAND - The Warriors will win the NBA championship Monday night at Oracle Arena, will close out the Cleveland Cavaliers and win their second consecutive championship, culminating the greatest season in the history of the league.

They withstood a severe, gritty, mean, desperate challenge by the Cavs Friday night, beat them 108-97, took a 3-1 lead in these finals. A dizzying dominating lead.

The game was grim, like a death match. The Warriors could have folded like they folded in Game 3, but they stayed with it. Played hard. Showed their character. No team down 3-1 ever came back to win the finals - 32 have tried.

It was not a pretty game. The easy, beautiful ones are not the best games. This was the best game. The Warriors overcame the Cavs. More important, they overcame themselves. Overcoming themselves was the hardest part.

After Game 3, after the series seemed to turn, Steve Kerr called his team soft. He said “soft” a million times, and he said it with contempt. His team was in the finals and it was complacent and thought it could win just by breathing. After Friday's win, I asked Kerr about that.

“Last game you used the adjective ‘soft' to describe your team. They were not soft tonight. How do you go in one game from being soft to whatever they were tonight?”

“We felt threatened,” Kerr said. “Up 2-0, we came here and thought, ‘OK, we've got this.' And they kicked us in the teeth. Our team's personality, and it's been this way for two years, we can't stand prosperity. We start winning and then we let our guard down, and we did that the other night, and Cleveland played a brilliant game, and tonight we were threatened and we responded well.”

That was a brilliant quote. The Warriors, as weird as it seems, needed to lose to win, needed that kick in the teeth. And that goes for Stephen Curry.

He played complacently this series until Friday night. Readers told me he's hurt. He is not hurt. Readers told me the officials were screwing him. They are not. Readers told me the Cavs were playing him dirty. They were not.

Curry was not into the games the way the two-time MVP should be into the games. He is the leader and the team follows him, and the team became complacent - like him. Draymond Green wasn't complacent. He went crazy on the bench in Game 3. But he is not the leader. He is the figurehead leader. This team follows Curry. The true leader.

Friday night he led. Scored 38 points. Took over the game the way the best player should. Played hero ball. The Warriors needed him to.

I asked Curry how he went from soft to not-soft from one game to the next:

“We were lackadaisical, didn't really show up, myself included. Today, was another opportunity, a fresh start to come out and get back to who we are and play with aggression, assertiveness and confidence. In the first quarter, we took their first punch and came right back at them, did what we were supposed to do.”

In other words, the Warriors and Curry weren't soft.

Here's more soft. Such an interesting concept.

“You called the team ‘soft' publicly,” one reporter asked Kerr. “Draymond (Green) went even further and said, ‘We were punked.' What impact do you think it has when you guys take it public and challenge the team?”

“To be honest,” Kerr said, “I never even looked at it like I'm challenging them. I was just telling the truth, and they know the truth. We were soft. So I wasn't offending any of our guys. They'd be offended if they weren't soft and I called them soft. But everybody here would agree we were awfully soft in Game 3, and we came out and competed much better tonight.”

Kerr wasn't being honest. He certainly did publicly challenge his team. He didn't curse at the players, but he applied an undignified adjective to them. He needled them, motivated them. They needed it and it worked.

What Kerr did between Game 3 and Game 4 was real coaching, deep coaching. This was a great and significant moment in his career.

It also was significant for Green. He has not been a star in the postseason. Kevin Durant handled him and James is handling him. He is only the Warriors' third-best player. And yet he had a wonderful moment with James. They tied up and argued, and James wanted to keep going.

In the past, Green would have shot off his mouth and drawn a “T.” But he walked away while James kept jawing. That is maturity, the thing missing from Green's game - so hard to come by for him and everyone.

James was not mature. Got into it later with Curry. James so frustrated with himself, with his seven ghastly turnovers, with the fact he can't shoot a 3 or any kind of jumper very well. Jealous of the Warriors, who will win this thing.

Someone asked Kerr about Game 5, the potential closeout game in Oakland. Kerr, so earnest, said, “I've already told our guys Game 5 will be the hardest game of the series. Every closeout game is difficult, but when you're at home, it's even more difficult. You've got everybody in your ear. You've got friends, you've got family who want to come to the game and want to discuss everything. We have to understand this series is not over. We came in and did what we wanted to do getting the split, but Game 5 will be extremely difficult.”

It will be difficult for a while, and then the Warriors will break the Cavs, who are ready to be broken. You know why Kerr gave that little speech about the dangers of a closeout game? He doesn't want the Warriors to be soft.

Soft being the dirty word of these finals.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.