CLEVELAND – Stephen Curry slid underneath the basket, watched his layup roll into the hoop, then hopped up. He looked around at the stunned Cleveland Cavaliers bench, a silent crowd at Quicken Loans Arena and calmly slid his mouthpiece into his sock. No showboating or commentary was necessary. Curry and the Golden State Warriors made a loud enough statement with their play Friday night, defeating the Cavaliers 108-97 in Game 4 of the NBA Finals and moving one victory from closing out what could arguably be the greatest season in NBA history.
The Warriors won the first two games of the NBA Finals without getting significant contributions from their All-Star backcourt, and the woes of Curry and Klay Thompson were only magnified in a Game 3 defeat. But after absorbing their share of criticism for failing to show up on the game’s largest stage, Curry and Thompson combined to score 63 points in what could be the final game played this season in Cleveland.
“With guys like [Curry and Thompson], you can’t keep them down forever,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Sometimes our best offense is our defense, and we were making stops and we were able to get out and run and kind of flow into our offense.”
Game 5 is Monday in Oakland, where the Warriors have a chance to win back-to-back championships – and cap a season in which they won an NBA-record 73 games – in front of their home fans.
Curry had his game, intensity and focus questioned from almost everywhere, including his head coach. But with a swarm of scrutiny closing in on him, Curry scored a Finals career-high 38 points, silencing anyone with doubts about him winning a unanimous MVP award. In the final seconds, he also had a verbal exchange with LeBron James that left players walking away with angry smirks. James nearly finished with a triple double, contributing 25 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, but he was fuming after also getting testy with Warriors All-Star forward Draymond Green. Teams that trail 3-1 in the NBA Finals are 0-32 in the series.
“Draymond just said something that I don’t agree with,” James said. “I’m all cool with the competition. I’m all fine with that, but some of the words that came out of his mouth were a little bit overboard, and being a guy with pride, a guy with three kids and a family, things of that nature, some things just go overboard and that’s where he took it, and that was it.”
After three consecutive blowouts, the Warriors and Cavaliers finally provided a competitive game, but it lasted only three quarters. Golden State took advantage of a fatigued Cavaliers team that faded toward the finish.
Kyrie Irving continued to carry the offensive load for the Cavaliers, scoring a team-high 34 points, but was often playing on an island. Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith both contributed 10 points but neither scored in the second half.
The return of Kevin Love had little influence on the outcome after he missed the previous game because of concussion protocol. Love watched the Cavaliers’ emphatic Game 3 victory from the locker room and greeted his teammates with chest bumps and arm bars. He was cleared shortly before tip-off and Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue decided to bring his $110 million power forward off the bench, unwilling to disrupt the lineup that worked so well in the previous game.
“Kevin came to me after the game and just said, whatever I felt was right, coming off the bench or starting, he was all in,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “So after winning the game by 30 points, I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Love scored 11 points to help the Cavaliers’ otherwise anemic bench, but Lue still maintained an extremely tight rotation with only one day between games, and his starters were gassed in the fourth quarter.
“When it’s time to win and you’re in the NBA Finals, you’ve got to play as many minutes as you need to,” Lue said. “If you’ve got to play 96 minutes, you’ve got to play 96 minutes. We’re trying to win. We’re in the Finals. … In the NBA Finals you’ve got to lay it all on the line. In nine days you can rest all summer.”
Curry and Thompson had plenty in reserve for the finish but were aided by Harrison Barnes, who scored 14 points and added two huge 3-pointers after being on the wrong end of a wicked James putback dunk.
Late in the fourth quarter a man ran onto the court but was quickly subdued and escorted away by police. On his chest was the painted message “Trump sucks” and his back read “LeBron 4 President.”
The Cavaliers got the Warriors’ attention with a 30-point thrashing in Game 3. Kerr called his team “soft” and Green complained that the Warriors were punked.
“For whatever reason our team’s personality, and it’s been this way for two years, [is] we can’t stand prosperity, you know?” Kerr said. “We start winning and then we let our guard down, and I thought we did that the other night, and Cleveland played a brilliant game, and tonight we were threatened and we responded well.”
The Warriors were the more aggressive team in the second half Friday night. The Warriors have now won four of their past five games in Cleveland, including ending their season last year with a champagne shower in the locker room. With Curry and Thompson leading the way, that celebration might now happen in Oakland.
- Sports & Recreation
- Basketball
- Golden State Warriors
- Stephen Curry
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Klay Thompson
- Tristan Thompson
- NBA Finals
