Reflecting on the Warriors' title

The San Francisco Giants were underdogs in the postseason each time they won their three titles in the past five years. So it felt different with the Warriors as one of the best teams in the regular season in NBA history en route to their championship.

After being the eighth team in history to finish with a 10 point differential in the regular season, Golden State wasn't quite as dominant in the postseason. The Warriors were the best team in the postseason, but it is a different beast. You don't sneak your way into the playoffs in the Western Conference.

While the Warriors became the first team with no players with NBA Finals experience since Michael Jordan led the 1990-91 Bulls to the franchise's first title, they were also the first team with a rookie head coach to win a championship since the Showtime Lakers in 1982 with Pat Riley. With the higher level of play and the playoff format, Kerr seemed ill-prepared at times. While most media focused on the inexperience of the players at that level, I faulted Kerr. But in the end, he won the coaching battle in each series.

The Warriors faced adversity in each round, but Kerr made adjustments and the team executed his plans to perfection. Outside of Stephen Curry's fall and Klay Thompson's concussion, watching LeBron James prove himself as one of the best of all time provided the biggest scare to Golden State's dreams of winning a title. But the Warriors were the better team and Kerr's moves, along with the team's depth, made the difference.

It turns out the Warriors didn't need Thompson in the Finals -- well at least not that much. He did score 15.8 points per game and played stellar defense. But Andre Iguodala led the Warriors when they needed it most. They followed his lead on both ends of the court.

When the Golden State offense gasped for air, Iguodala resuscitated it by pushing the pace. But it wasn't just his energy on the fast break, Iguodala led the NBA Finals with a 62 effective field goal percentage (eFG%). On defense, Iguodala shut down James -- or at least slowed him down as much as possible. When he was in, James shot 38 percent and the Cavs were minus-55. When he was out, James shot 44 percent and Cleveland was plus-30.

Curry didn't earn any MVP votes for the Finals, but he had a sneaky good series. Besides crossing up Matt Dellavedova, he had some other daggers. Curry played the most minutes of any Warrior and was second overall in Finals minutes to James. He averaged 26 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists a game with a 55 eFG%. I'm glad he didn't split the vote with a more-than-deserving Iguodala, but Curry was huge.