VIDEO: Andre Iguodala post-game interview

CLEVELAND — The Golden State Warriors are NBA champions for the first time in 40 years. After going down 2-1 in The Finals, they came back to win three straight games (two of them on the road) to take the Larry O’Brien trophy back to Oakland.

One stat stood out from the rest in the Warriors’ 105-97 victory on Tuesday and their 4-2 series win.

The stat

62 – Points by which the Warriors outscored the Cavs with Andre Iguodala on the floor in the series.

The context

That was the best plus-minus in the series. Next best was Stephen Curry at plus-52. The Warriors were outscored by 19 points in Iguodala’s 76 minutes on the bench.

Iguodala started Games 1, 2 and 3 on that bench, which allowed LeBron James to go at Harrison Barnes early and often. But, though the Warriors several long and athletic defenders, it became clear that Iguodala was the most qualified to slow down the best player in the world.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr put Iguodala in the starting lineup in Game 3, a move that not only gave his team better spacing offensively, but maximized the time his best defender was in front of James. From then on, Iguodala was basically on the floor whenever James was, and the Cavs’ offense never got on track. James shot just 38 percent with Iguodala on the floor.

Iguodala contributed on the other end of the floor, too, averaging 16.3 points and 4.0 assists, while shooting 40 percent from 3-point range (9-for-14 in fourth quarters). His two highest scoring games of the season (98 total games) came in Game 4 (22 points) and Game 6 (25). He scored 15 or more points only 12 times all year, and four of those games were in The Finals.

And for his work on both ends of the floor, Iguodala was named Finals MVP.

Pace = Possessions per 48 minutes
OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
EFG% = (FGM + (0.5 * 3PM)) / FGA
OREB% = Percentage of available offensive rebounds obtained
TO Ratio = Turnovers per 100 possessions
FTA Rate = FTA / FGA