The Cavaliers scored 49 points in the first quarter alone, the most in a quarter in NBA Finals history. Golden State's 68 points, a scorching mark in most any other contest, barely kept the game within 20.
The Warriors had planned to party, to pay back Cleveland. Unlike Barnes, who was allowed to shoot from the outside at will during the 2016 NBA Finals, Durant requires a minimum of one defender in his face at all times. The comeback Cavaliers are at it again. He had his National Basketball Association playoff record ninth triple double with 31 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds and was a physical presence all evening. We shared the ball, we moved the ball and defensively we were physical. It got out of hand a little bit. They know they can come back from a 3-1 deficit - they did it previous year after all - and it will be interesting to see what the line is for Game 6 if they can pull off another win in Game 5.
In the 1st half, the Cavs set a NBA Finals and team record (regular season and postseason) for points in a half, finishing with 86.
Game five is back in Oakland on Monday.
As the final seconds ticked off, Cleveland fans chanted "Cavs in 7".
Even as the offense was more than up to the task-their offensive rating of 120.7 was a fine-enough showing to win on most nights, but the Cavs simply could not miss their shots. We're going against a juggernaut of a team, but we're a juggernaut of a team, too. Kerr said the team had to get defence into the game, words that were not necessary as the Warriors built that 3-0 lead in the series. But it's on hold and Golden State fans are holding their breath.
"I think it came from Draymond (Green, a Warriors forward), which is OK, that's Dray anyway".
"But tonight we kind of - we took it to them first, and that was very telling for the rest of the game".
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Davidson led her party to its best result in Scotland for three decades, in contrast to Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May's dismal showing elsewhere in the UK.
"I didn't stress anything besides just live in the moment", he said.
Curry, of the best shooters in basketball history, had his worst game of the Finals, scoring a mere 14 points on 4-of-13 shooting. "Not going to overreact to one", Curry told reporters.
And front and centre, as he always is when the Cavs are doing special things, was LeBron James, the best player in the world. In this series, he is averaging a triple-double with 31.8 points on.540 shooting, 11.8 rebounds and 10.8 assists in 41.5 minutes. After several minutes, James stopped and performed a dozen lunges before teammate Tristan Thompson came over and playfully asked, "What are you doing?"
Ultimately, the Cavaliers outplayed the Warriors, and here are three huge takeaways that we can extract from this terrific game 4.
Not to be overshadowed, Kyrie Irving put up 40 points, including seven three-pointers, while Kevin Love had 23 points.
"They made 24 threes, and we knew that we weren't going to keep them quiet from the three-point line the whole series", Kerr said. The two alpha males had plenty to say and neither backed down. But referees claimed that his first technical was on head coach Steve Kerr. Zaza Pachulia appeared to deliberately hit Iman Shumpert while in a tustle on the ground, fighting for the ball. "The table informed us that it was his second technical foul and ejected". Suddenly, the Warriors trailed 19-6, and eventually were down by as many as 19 points in the first quarter.
The tone was set in a marathon first quarter, with the chippiness and chirping reaching its high point for the series. "It's whatever you need to get yourself ready to play".
It's still hard to rationalize the Warriors team that showed up on Friday with the juggernaut that had powered its way to a 15-0 start in the playoffs and hadn't lost a game since April 10. There have been two one-loss champions: the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers (15-1) and 1983 Philadelphia 76ers (12-1). Comedian Kevin Hart and National Football League star Odell Beckham Jr. were among the courtside celebrities.
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