They beat the Cavaliers 108-97 on Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena to take a 3-1 lead in the series, and can wrap it all up Monday in Oakland.
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Steve Kerr hailed Stephen Curry’s performance in the Golden State Warriors’ win in game four of the NBA Finals, labelling it as another reminder as to why he was voted the unanimous MVP.
Klay Thompson added 25 points and Harrison Barnes contributed 14, each hitting four 3-pointers, and Draymond Green grabbed 12 rebounds for the Warriors, who made 11 more 3-pointers than Cleveland and one more 3-point shot than they did 2-point shots, in large part to Curry’s revival of form.
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.
Of the 32 teams that have faced a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals none have ever come back to win the championship.
Kyrie Irving had 34 points for the Cavaliers, and LeBron James finished an assist shy of a triple-double with 25 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. But for now, all James is thinking about is Game 5. It was a lot of money to throw at a player who doesn’t score much, or even blocks a lot of shots.
It was a telling sequence of events that showed Golden State was the hungrier team in Game 4. “They’ll take a look at it. We all saw it in the locker room”.
“Staying confident in myself, my teammates staying confident in me, staying with it”, Curry said of how he managed to turn things around. Jefferson fouled out with three points and six rebounds. “I think what’s more important is his health and we hope he’s able to play (Friday)”.
Golden State kept hitting shots, in the second half, and with Curry and Thompson both on, the Warriors kept their pressure on the Cavs.
Barnes is averaging 5.5 rebounds per game – second on the team, despite consistently grappling with Tristan Thompson (at least two inches taller) and LeBron James (at least 25 pounds heavier).
It didn’t produce the same result, and with the game on the line, the Cavaliers went back to what hurt them in the first two games: too much dribbling and too many isolation plays.
The biggest difference was three-point shooting, as the Warriors relied on their deadliest weapon to eventually down the Cavs.
“It’s going to get chippy”, Thompson said.
Curry had his MVP moment with 3:22 remaining, when he answered Irving’s layup with a three-pointer from the top of the key to push Golden State’s lead to 96-86. “We’ve just got to get one”.
The Cavaliers’ offense changed dramatically in the fourth quarter.
Kevin Love will play, but not start in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
Now they head back to the Bay Area with a 3-1 lead and a chance to close out a historic season in game five on Monday. I thought we competed. 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.
The Cavaliers finally were at full strength for the NBA Finals.
Saturday afternoon, the National Basketball Association notified the Warriors that it was examining the play to determine whether it warranted a flagrant foul.
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The Cavs were 9 of 21 from the field in the fourth quarter and suffered their first home loss this postseason after winning their first eight. “We have to get back to playing how we play”. Ohio State’s Urban Meyer sat near Cleveland’s bench while Pep Guardiola, the Spanish soccer coach taking over at Manchester City after three years with Bayern Munich, wore a No. 23 Cleveland jersey.
