Led by 34 points from Stephen Curry, who was named Finals MVP, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 103-90 on Thursday night to claim their fourth NBA championship in the last eight seasons.

The victory gives the trio of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green their fourth title together -- all under head coach Steve Kerr -- adding to their championships from 2015, 2017 and 2018. They've won 21 NBA Finals games together, having recently passed Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili (19) for the most NBA Finals wins by a trio over the last 30 years.

The way Game 6 unfolded at TD Garden in Boston didn't initially look like it would be a surefire win for Golden State. Boston was up 14-2 to start the game. But the Warriors didn't just claw back -- they hit the gas pedal.

Golden State went on a 52-25 run to end the first half. That included a 21-0 run -- the longest scoring run in an NBA Finals game in the last 50 years.

The Celtics cut the Warriors' lead to single digits late in the third quarter and again in the fourth quarter but could get no closer.

Boston had previously excelled in do-or-die games in its playoff run.

Until their Game 5 loss in these Finals, they were unbeaten in postseason games following a defeat. They have been victorious in two win-or-go-home games against the Milwaukee Bucks and a Game 7 against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Yet the Celtics were up 2-1 in the series before losing three straight to Golden State, including Games 4 and 6 in Boston.

This is the Warriors' seventh league title in franchise history -- two of which were won as the Philadelphia Warriors in 1947 and 1956.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who normally presents the Larry O'Brien Trophy to the NBA champion, did not attend Games 5 or 6 due to the NBA's health and safety protocols.

BOSTON (AP) — Basketball Hall of Famer K.C. Jones, who won eight NBA championships as a Celtics player in the 1960s and two more as the coach of the Celtics team that took the titles in 1984 and '86, has died. He was 88.

The Celtics said Jones' family confirmed on Friday that he died at an assisted-living facility in Connecticut, where he had been receiving care for Alzheimer's disease for the past few years.

In a statement, the Celtics said Jones was both a "fierce competitor and a gentleman."

"He made his teammates better, and he got the most out of the players he coached," the Celtics said. "Never one to seek credit, his glory was found in the most fundamental of basketball ideals – being part of a winning team. The Celtics family mourns his loss, as we celebrate his remarkable career and life."

In 1955-56, Jones and Bill Russell led San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA championships, the Associated Press reported. Russell and Jones also won Olympic gold medals at the 1956 Games in Melbourne while playing basketball on the U.S. team.

Jones joined Russell in the NBA when the Celtics drafted Jones in the second round of the 1956 NBA Draft, and they both went on to win eight-straight NBA championships from 1959-66.

In 1967, Jones retired, and the Celtics hung his No. 25 from the rafters. After retiring as a player, Jones began coaching, first in college, and then he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 1971. In 1972, he won another NBA title.

Jones earned three more NBA championships with the Celtics, first as an assistant coach in 1981, and then as head coach in 1984 and 1986.

NEW YORK —

Eighteen former NBA players were charged Thursday with pocketing about $2.5 million illegally by defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan in a scam that authorities said involved claiming fictitious medical and dental expenses.

"The defendants' playbook involved fraud and deception," U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss told a news conference after FBI agents across the country arrested 15 ex-players and one of their wives in a three-year conspiracy that authorities say started in 2017.

According to an indictment returned in Manhattan federal court, the ex-players teamed up to defraud the supplemental coverage plan by submitting fraudulent claims to get reimbursed for medical and dental procedures that never happened.

Strauss said prosecutors have travel records, email and GPS data that prove the ex-players were sometimes far from the medical and dental offices at the times when they were supposedly getting treated.

In one instance, she said, an ex-player was playing basketball in Taiwan when he was supposedly getting $48,000 worth of root canals and crowns on eight teeth at a Beverly Hills, California, dental office in December 2018.

The indictment said the scheme was carried out from at least 2017 to 2020, when the plan — funded primarily by NBA teams — received false claims totaling about $3.9 million. Of that, the defendants received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds.

Strauss said each defendant made false claims for reimbursements that ranged from $65,000 to $420,000.

A request for comment to the league wasn't immediately returned.

Michael J. Driscoll, the head of New York's FBI office, said the case demonstrated the FBI's continued focus on uncovering health care fraud scams that cost the health care industry tens of billions of dollars a year.

Strauss said the conspiracy was led by Terrence Williams, who began his career as a first-round NBA draft pick in 2009. The indictment said he submitted $19,000 in fraudulent claims to the plan in November 2017 for chiropractic care. The claims led to a $7,672 payout for Williams.

The indictment said he then recruited other former NBA players to defraud the plan and offered to provide fraudulent invoices from a chiropractor and dentist in Southern California and a wellness office in Washington state.

At least 10 of the ex-players paid kickbacks totaling about $230,000 to Williams, according to the court papers. A lawyer who has represented Williams in the past declined to comment.

What was then the New Jersey Nets picked Williams as No. 11 in the 2009 draft. He went on to play with four franchises — the Nets, Boston, Houston and Sacramento — over four seasons as a role player, averaging 7.1 points per game. He was waived by Boston two days after his 26th birthday in 2013 and hasn’t appeared in the league since.

Among those charged was Tony Allen, a six-time All-Defensive team selection and a member of the 2008 champion Boston Celtics. His wife was also indicted. Notably, Allen is set to have his jersey retired by the Memphis Grizzlies later this season. Tony Allen was not in custody as of Thursday afternoon.

For the most part, though, the ex-players charged had journeyman careers playing for several different teams and never reached anywhere close to the enormous stardom or salary that top players command.

Still, the 18 players combined to make $343 million in their on-court NBA careers, not counting outside income, endorsements or what any may have made playing overseas.

Strauss declined to speculate on their motivations or financial situations, saying to do so would go beyond the facts in the indictment.

Another former player charged in the scheme was Sebastian Telfair, a one-time high school star in New York who was highly touted when he turned pro, though his NBA career with eight franchises never brought the stardom some had expected.

Those charged also included four NBA champions. Glen Davis, along with Allen, was part of that 2008 title team in Boston. Shannon Brown won two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Melvin Ely won a title with San Antonio in 2007.

Among others who were charged, Anthony Wroten, Ruben Patterson and Darius Miles were the only players who averaged double figures for their NBA careers.

Wroten averaged 11.1 points in 145 career games. Patterson averaged 10.7 points per game with six different teams. Miles, the No. 3 pick in the 2000 draft, averaged 10.1 points per game and played with four different franchises.