LeBron admits Warriors were ‘better’ than Cavs in 2016, but reveals what turned Finals around

The Cleveland Cavaliers came out on top in seven games against the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals in legendary fashion, but there’s some evidence that suggests the Warriors were actually the better team.

For one, the Warriors had just put together the single most successful regular season in the history of the NBA. They won a league-record 73 games in the 2015-16 regular season to narrowly eclipse the previous all-time mark set by the Chicago Bulls, who picked up 72 victories in the 1995-96 regular season.

In addition, the Warriors were in the driver’s seat to beat the Cavaliers and win their second consecutive title four games into the championship series. They held a 3-1 series lead, but they then became the first and only team in NBA Finals history to blow such a commanding lead in the championship series.

Star forward LeBron James, who was the top player on that 2016 Cavaliers team, said recently that the Warriors were the “better” team yet couldn’t get it done against Cleveland.

“What I told them before we boarded the plane to go to the Bay, going to Game 5 — once what happened in Game 5 happened, my guys believed that what I was saying was f—— coming true,” James explained. “‘Y’all get me back to Game 6; we’ll come back here for Game 7.’

“… It was like, nothing is stopping us, you know? I mean, there’s clips out there of me in the locker room saying that they’re messed up and things of that nature, and we got ’em. … I mean, they were the better team. I just think it’s the momentum wave. We hit a momentum pop, and s—, it’s nothing they could do about it.”

The Cavaliers won Game 5 on the road behind monster scoring efforts from the likes of James and star guard Kyrie Irving. They combined for an unbelievable 82 points in the contest and scored 41 points apiece. James and Irving scored the ball at incredibly efficient rates, too, with the former shooting 16-of-30 from the field and the latter shooting 17-of-24.

Cleveland’s defense in the second half of that game was also phenomenal, as it held the Warriors to just 36 points across the last two quarters. For perspective, the Warriors scored 32 points in the first quarter alone.

The series went back to Cleveland following the team’s massive Game 5 victory, and the Cavaliers won Game 6 at home by double digits in another 41-point effort for James.

Finally, the Cavaliers won a Game 7 that’s considered to be one of the better playoff games in modern NBA history by a mere four points. Cleveland got valuable contributions from its entire starting lineup in the biggest game in franchise history, as every member of its opening lineup scored at least nine points, and unsurprisingly, James led the way in the scoring column with 27 points.