Golden State was robbed.
On national television, in front of 30 million witnesses, the Warriors had their lunch money taken, their books stolen and sold by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The best team won the 2016 NBA championship and left in its wake the Warriors' 73-9 regular season, a NBA record for victories, and their 3-1 lead in the finals.
The 93-89 final score was not indicative of how much Cleveland dominated the second half, but was more that the game plan was obviously to make Draymond Green beat the Cavs. Actually, anyone other than Steph Curry or Klay Thompson.
Curry and Thompson are the snipers who nail three-pointers from all over the court. Curry hit one so deep Sunday night it seemed he might have a foot in Cleveland. The game was in Oakland, Calif.
That duo is mostly why the Warriors won 73 games. Why they came back for a 3-1 deficit to Oklahoma City and at one point seemed to have the championship finals in hand.
It was like Cleveland opened the second half with the statement: OK, you live and die by the three, and you aren't living the next 24 minutes.
Slowly, but surely, as three-pointers clanked off the rim, LeBron James and Co. dominated the paint.
Make no mistake, basketball is still a big man's game, and by the time the final buzzer sounded leaving a shocked and stunned Warriors Nation to realize there was no repeat, the Cavs had dominated most of the critical statistics.
They had more rebounds, more free throws and fewer turnovers. But most telling was how they outscored the Warriors in the paint, 48-28; on second-chance points, 17-6; and had 18 fastbreak points to just 7 for Golden State.
Curry and Thompson were a combined 6 of 24 on three-pointers.
James was named the Most Valuable Player, and there was no real room for argument. He had 27 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds.
He, as much as anyone, intimidated Curry, who may be the best three-point shooter ever. But when James faced up on Curry, his defense was too long, too strong and too quick.
It was James' sixth consecutive championship series, including when his talents were playing for the Miami Heat. It was his third MVP.
The postgame spotlight was his. He earned it. He loved it.
Sure, had Golden State's center Andrew Bogut not gotten hurt, it might have been different. But even when you lose your top rebounder and best interior defensive player, you are supposed to find a way to overcome.
Cleveland, which started this year's playoffs by sweeping Detroit and Atlanta, had injury problems a year ago when it lost the championship to Golden State.
The biggest injury the Warriors had was a bruised ego after losing three consecutive games to the Cavs, two on their home court in front of sellouts.
After the game, Curry, who lost some of his appeal when he threw his mouthpiece (the chewing on it got more aggravating with each loss) into the stands when he fouled out in Game 6, sounded a lot like James, talking about what he had done in the past and how he needed to do it again for his team.
James was cradling both the championship and MVP trophy. Only one was his; the other belonged to a team that knew its strength was muscle and used that to wrestle the finesse right out of the Warriors, who really weren't Warriors in the second half.
Golden State allowed itself to be robbed on national television because its main offense was three-pointers and their dynamic duo, the Splash Brothers, got shut down in the stretch.
Sports on 06/21/2016