It’s a sweep! Golden State brushes away LeBron, Cavs in NBA Finals. Social media reacts

Thursday afternoon, long before his Cleveland Cavaliers would be swept in the NBA Finals by a superior professional basketball team from Golden State, LeBron James met with the media and simply told the truth:

James said that Golden State is simply better than Cleveland, better than everybody in the NBA. Sure enough, Golden State whipped Cleveland in Game 4 Friday 108-85, clinching its third NBA championship in four years, and beating James’ Cavs for the third time in four years.

Stephen Curry had 37 points, making seven 3-point shots. Kevin Durant, who won his second straight Finals MVP award, had a triple double (20 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists). And Golden State was simply too much.

Just like James was talking about Thursday.

"Obviously, from a talent perspective,” James said then, “if you’re looking at Golden State from their top five best players to our top five players, you would say they’re stacked better than us. Let’s just speak truth.”

And he continued.

"You’ve got two guys with MVPs on their team (Kevin Durant and Steph Curry). And then you’ve got a guy in Klay (Thompson) who could easily be on a team and carry a team, scored 40 in a quarter before. And then you have Draymond (Green), who is arguably one of the best defenders and minds we have in our game. So you have that crew.

"Then you add on a Finals MVP coming off the bench (Andre Iguodala), a No. 1 pick in (Shaun) Livingston and an All-Star in David West and whatever the case may be. So they have a lot of talent."

After Golden State’s by-the-books win Friday, the Warriors have their past two Finals by a combined eight games to one. The Warriors two MVPs are in their primes, and there’s no reason to think the Warriors’ juggernaut is going to slow down anytime soon.

Cavs laying down?

Late in the third quarter, Golden State opened up a 21-point lead and Cleveland appeared to not be playing very hard. Mark Jackson, ABC’s color guy, compared the Cavs’ effort, correctly, to Roberto Duran’s “No Mas” fight with Sugar Ray Leonard.

Cleveland scored 13 points in the third quarter and the Cavs fate, honestly, was sealed. They were down 21 points to a juggernaut.

ABC’s announcers called into question

With a game that wasn’t very entertaining, fans seemed to turn their ire towards ABC’s annouce team of Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. The (usually) brilliant Mike (”Bang”) Breen was doing a solid job, but a lot of people seemed to want to move Doris Burke off the sideline reporter gig and onto the big stage.

(For the record, we are fans of ABC’s announce team)

LeBron’s eyes -- again

After being poked in the eye by Draymond Green and having a bloody red spot in the white of his eye for the remainder of the series, LeBron James appeared to get in the same eye again in Game 4. This time by Shaun Livingston.

Twitter noticed.

Trump: Warriors not invited to the White House

President Donald Trump said Friday that the NBA Champion would not be invited to the White House once the NBA finals conclude.

"I didn't invite LeBron James and I didn't invite Steph Curry,” Trump told reporters Friday before leaving for the G-7 Summit in Canada. “We're not going to invite either team, but we have other teams that are coming.”

Earlier in the week, both Curry and James said their teams wouldn’t accept an invitation if one was given.

Also, earlier, Trump canceled a White House visit from the NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles.

"My attitude [is], if they want to be here, the greatest place on Earth, I'll be here,” Trump said. “If they don't want to be here, I don't want them.”

LeBron: what’s next?

LeBron was trolled hard on social media for being 3-6 all-time in NBA Finals and swept in the Finals for the second time in his career, and he trended on social media about that and about where he might play next.

Philly 76ers center Joel Embiid began his recruitment almost as soon as the Finals ended. And he wasn’t the only one.

The Associated Press contributed

This story was originally published June 8, 2018 at 11:30 PM with the headline "It’s a sweep! Golden State brushes away LeBron, Cavs in NBA Finals. Social media reacts."