Golden State still leads the series 2-1, and Game 4 is Friday in Cleveland. Notice how Andre Iguodala, despite contesting the shot, still gave James a lot of breathing room on the actual jumper.
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Irving, who spent so much time dribbling, dribbling, dribbling into nothing-offense the first two games of the series, was sharp, slicing to the hole aggressively all night, his jumpshot on too, netting him 30 points on 12-25 shooting – a monumental improvement over his sad performances in Games 1 and 2. “It was just good basketball. So it was just a collective team win”.
Thompson and teammate Harrison Barnes joined forces to finish with 17 points. He exploited mismatches, broke free for dunks and pushed the ball in transition often. He was 2-of-5 in the first two games of the series. I didn’t think there was an adjustment they can make other than to play harder than us. “Obviously, they just punched us right in the mouth right in the beginning”. It’s happened every series for us. “I missed a ton of chippies, but I was loving the space that I was getting and my teammates created for me”. “It’s not about living up to a certain expectation other than the one that I have for myself, and I haven’t done that, or I didn’t do that tonight, and I’ve got to be better”. “This has been our team the last couple of years”.
“Follow my lead from the beginning!” he screamed. “He did a great job in leading us to victory”. “It doesn’t matter who scores the points or who gets the credit”.
Irving was 6-of-8 on pull-up jumpers in the first quarter.
“Kevin is a big part of our team, one of the main reasons we’re here”, Jefferson said. “We all understood that”. We just knew that we had to take care of business for him, and we did that. He also was the inspirational leader, diving on the court for loose balls and helping direct the defense.J.R. Smith loves the home court rims, and he scored 20 – more points than Warriors stars Klay Thompson (10) or Stephen Curry (19).
Richard Jefferson (nine points, eight rebounds) filled in capably for Kevin Love, hitting a key 3-pointer early to cap a 9-0 start to the game that got the Cleveland crowd into it for the rest of the night. They were in Game 3 offensively (48% from the field) and defensively (held the Warriors to 42% shooting, including 27.3% on three-pointers).
After setting an National Basketball Association record with a 73 wins during the 82-game regular season, the Warriors will not allow themselves to get rattled by a single loss. They are also going to need Kyrie Irving to continue his consistent play. Kyrie Irving chipped in 30 points and game-high eight assists. “For me to help my team, I have to play 100 times better than that, especially in the first quarter”. He closed the game out. “Just a terrible way to start”. He took the game over from that standpoint. “I-feel-like-I’m-letting-you-guys-down moment without him actually even saying it”.
James even displayed some gamesmanship.
Whenever basketball is over, Cleveland guard Iman Shumpert has a future as an worldwide diplomat.
Golden State’s All-Star Splash Brothers backcourt no points in the first half.
Out of sorts on one second-quarter possession, Curry was making a cut off the baseline when he apparently never saw a pass that bounced off him and sailed out of bounds.
“That’s for all of their guys, not just Steph”, Cavaliers forward LeBron James said.
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And now, a major storyline for Game 4.
