As if the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers needed anything to further spice up the 2016 NBA Finals, that’s exactly what happened in the last game with the altercation between Draymond Green and LeBron James.
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Harrison Barnes and Thompson added four each, and the Warriors became the first team in Finals history to make more three-pointers than two-point field goals (16).
Unlike the first three games of the Finals which ended in routs, the Cavaliers and the Warriors kept things close this time, swopping leads throughout the game.
The Cavaliers’ back-up Australian point guard Matthew Dellavedova also did not have much impact with just two points in less than five minutes.
Of the 32 teams who have faced a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals none have come back to win the championship. He finally played like the back-to-back MVP, with the “breakout” that had been missing as he averaged 15.5 points – roughly half of his regular-season average â in the first three games of the series. If we do that, our offense will get going.
“I have an opinion on who’s our general, and that’s Coach Lue”, James said after shootaround Friday morning. “We have certain rules and we’re trying to follow our rules… but no matter what you do, he’s going to have a huge stat line and he’s going to impact the game 1,000 different ways”.
“Draymond said something I didn’t agree with”, James said in the post-game press conference.
He told the Cavaliers to follow his lead, took the blame when they fell behind 2-0 in the series, has tried to say and do all the right things.
“We have to play with desperation, play to exhaustion and figure out how to win”, said Cleveland’s J.R. Smith.
It was in Game 4 of last year’s Finals that Warriors coach Steve Kerr changed his starting lineup, replacing Bogut with Andre Iguodala. “Bring everything we’ve got to win one game”, Lue said Sunday. Jefferson fouled out with three points and six rebounds. Seated at the postgame interview table at Quicken Loans Arena alongside fellow “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson, Curry was as comfortable discussing what looked like an in-game beef with LeBron James as he was the underwhelming response to the release of his latest shoe. “You know, we’ve got to go out there and play obviously better than we played tonight”.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out and show up and play better tomorrow night, and if we don’t, then they’re going to be back-to-back champion, and that’s it”. Which against a good defense like Golden State’s comes complete with a lot of contested shots.
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After James’ dunk gave the Cavs an 83-81 lead 1:39 into the fourth, they mustered one free throw in the next 6:37. James said it was after he was hit in the groin by Green.
