Bitter memories of 2016 championship loss drive Warriors

Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob has never been known to be shy. So, in a quiet moment on Monday night after his team completed its Western Conference finals sweep of the San Antonio Spurs to advance to the NBA Finals for a third consecutive season, it wasn’t surprising that Lacob made clear what the stakes are for the Warriors this time around.

“Now is the moment of truth,” Lacob told the Washington Post. “We got to our goal, to get to the Finals.

“Now, we’re going to try to win it.”

If Lacob is the most loquacious person associated with the Warriors, the person least expected to make waves is Klay Thompson, the star shooting guard who would rather do just about anything than sit down to talk to the media.

Yet when Thompson was asked how often he had thought about getting back to this point, of getting a chance to avenge last season’s agonizing collapse from a 3-1 series lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA’s championship round, he answered without hesitation.

“Every day,” Thompson said. “I always thought about it. We were so close last year … a game away. I would be lying to you if I didn’t think about it all the time.

“I’m a competitive guy. I’ve thought about it all the time. I think that’s what fueled a lot of us to stay consistent this year, is to get back to playing in June.”

The responses from Lacob and Thompson are emblematic of the feelings throughout the entire Warriors organization. From the moment the Cavaliers won the title in June and celebrated inside Golden State’s Oracle Arena in Oakland, the franchise, from top to bottom, has been engaged in a single-minded pursuit to erase that memory - at least, as much as such a memory can ever be erased - by reaching the NBA Finals once again.

Anything less this season wouldn’t have simply been a failure, not after landing Kevin Durant, adding one of the game’s top four players to a core that had already won a championship and a combined 140 games the previous two seasons. It would be a colossal disappointment.

So it should come as no surprise that the celebrations Monday night were muted. Sure, the Warriors were happy and smiled broadly as they posed with the Western Conference trophy, presented to them by former Warriors great and Hall of Famer Chris Mullin.

But the Warriors knew this part was expected.

They knew that after winning 67 games to finish with the league’s best record for a third season in a row that making it back to the Finals wouldn’t be enough.

Winning a championship - and, preferably, winning a championship against those same Cavaliers, who finished off the Eastern Conference final with a Game 5 win in Boston on Thursday night - is the only acceptable outcome for a team with this much star power and the expectations that come with it.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Stephen Curry said. “We appreciate this opportunity. Playing in this league, you can’t take anything for granted. Thirty teams suit up every year trying to get to this point and only two teams do, so you have to appreciate it.

“We might not be jumping up and down and screaming at the top of our lungs and doing all that nonsense, but we need to understand the privilege that we have and the opportunity that we have to play in the Finals again, to have the opportunity to win a championship.”

With the Cavaliers advancing Thursday night, this is the matchup everyone who follows the NBA has been waiting for since last year’s Finals ended.

Two years ago, the Cavaliers entered the Finals without Kevin Love because of a shoulder injury, and lost Kyrie Irving after Game 1.

Last year, the Warriors had Stephen Curry at less than 100 percent, had Draymond Green suspended for Game 5 and lost Andrew Bogut to injury for the remainder of the series in that game.

This year should offer a rubber match with both teams operating at full strength and entering the Finals with a staggering combined record in these playoffs of 24-1, showing just how far ahead of the rest of the league both teams remain.

No one wants this series more than the Warriors, who have spent every day since LeBron James lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy on their home court waiting for the chance to take it back.

Now they’ll finally get their chance, and only one result will be acceptable for Golden State.

“No excuses,” Lacob said with a smile. “Let’s do it.”