The Warriors, who set an National Basketball Association record with 73 regular-season wins, are now 13-1 after a loss this year and 4-1 in the postseason.
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“If we continue to battle and defend, eventually our offense will get going”.
Through the third quarter, Game 4 looked like anyone’s game. Cleveland stumbled, Golden State thrived and is now within one win of back-to-back titles.
Hardly himself through the first three games of the NBA Finals, Curry silenced his critics by pushing the Golden State Warriors within one win of making more history in this season of seasons.
Curry found his long-range touch and scored 38 points, Klay Thompson added 25 and the Warriors rebounded from a big loss by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-97 on Friday night.
Bogut landed on the court face down, had to go to the bench and did not return to the game.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr has changed up his rotation slightly, going to seldom-used James Michael McAdoo with the second unit over Festus Ezeli. “We can’t wait to get to Oracle”.
Kyrie Irving has 27 points and LeBron James had 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, two dimes shy of his seventh career triple-double in the finals. “So, you just keep playing”. “It doesn’t take one guy to come in and cut off the water or shut him down”. After winning the title on Cleveland’s home court previous year, Golden State can clinch at home Monday in Game 5. The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar will suggest otherwise, surely submitting that he only got agitated after his Golden State Warriors counterpart gave him an ensuing shove – and a shot to the groin that most will say wasn’t accidental. I think it was just the level of intensity that they brought. Their arrival was a welcomed relief for the Warriors, who had managed to bury the Cavs in the first two games despite minimal production from their two stars.
Here’s an oddity: The Warriors shot 47 percent from 3-point range, 36 percent from 2-point range. On back-to-back plays after a timeout, LeBron and Kyrie Irving had their shots rejected at the rim by Draymond Green and Thompson, respectively. “Tonight they went in”. “So we’re prepared for it, and it’s going to be a fun night”. “We felt threatened. Up 2-0, we felt for whatever reason, ‘We got this.’ They hit us in the teeth”.
But for the Cavaliers there was no way to defuse the Curry and Thompson time bomb that exploded again on Friday.
Curry, the NBA’s two-time reigning most valuable player and regular season scoring champion, was averaging just 16 points a game against the Cavs and Thompson 12.
The Warriors weren’t surprised Curry bounced back. Curry notched 11 points in the quarter and the Warriors outscored the Cavaliers 29-22, taking a 79-77 lead into the fourth. It was enough to have Cleveland up 55-50 at the half (although it was really 56-50 because Luke Walton picked up a technical at the end of the half, which Irving made to add to the lead).
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Curry made three 3-pointers in the first half, with his last one giving Golden State a three-point lead. “They got some second-chance points that hurt us”.
