The Golden State Warriors are no longer undefeated in playoff games this year and they won’t become the first team to go 16-0 in playoffs. At least not this year. The Cleveland Cavaliers beat them by 21 points last night in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Some other records WERE broken.
The Cavaliers came out of the gate fighting and scored 49 points in the first quarter, a record for NBA Finals. Their 86 points by the half was another record. Reporters wondered about Cleveland Coach Ty Lue’s pre-game speech.
LUE “No speech.”
Q. No speech at all?
LUE: Nope.
Lue said he could tell his team would play well when he saw them at the morning shootaround.
“Had a great vibe in the shootaround and guys were upbeat, wasn't no hanging heads or sad. Guys were into it.”
But his team remained physical and energetic to beat the Warriors 137 to 116. Lue and several of his players explained later that this was Cavaliers basketball.
There was no let-up.
“This was as close to a 48-minute game we played in the post-season,“ said Cleveland’s LeBron James. “Even in the first couple, first three rounds, this was close as -- to a 48- minute game as we played. It was big for us.”
The Cavs felt that they let Game 3, their first game at home, slip away Wednesday after having a 6-point lead with 3 minutes to play.
The home crowd helped fuel them Friday and role players like Richard Jefferson did well, scoring 8 points. Tristan Thompson became a force again grabbing 10 rebounds.
Golden State is the darling of the 3-point shot yet they made only 11 of 39 attempts while Cleveland made 24 of 45 treys.
James had his second triple-double of the Finals this year with 31 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds. Kyrie Irving dropped in seven 3-pointers and 40 points.
Kevin Durant led the Warriors with 35 points, 15 of those on free throws.
James moved ahead of Michael Jordan in overall Finals points with 1,206. He is in third place in all-time career Finals points with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,317) and Jerry West (1,679) ahead of him.
He was asked how the Cavs manage to bounce back after losing the first 3 games.
“I don't know. I don't like it. (Laughter.) It causes too much stress, man. I'm stressed out. Keep doing this every year.”
So the Cavs now go to Oakland for Game 5 Monday down 1 and 3, just like last year, when they won it all.