Curry, Thompson lead Warriors to Game 4 win

Love was cleared to play Friday night for Game 4 against the Golden State Warriors.

The next win is the only one that really matters to them.

Not himself through the first three games of the NBA Finals, Curry arrived in Game 4 – just in time – and pushed the Golden State Warriors within one win of making more history in this season of seasons.

They’re on the brink of successive championships, and their first opportunity to close out their record-setting season in the only acceptable manner is set for Monday on their home floor at Oracle Arena.

Curry just hit his sixth 3 of the game to give the Warriors a 72-69 lead.

“We can’t relax just because we’re going home and we’ve got a two-game cushion”, said Thompson. “We always talk about just because we’re going home doesn’t mean you can relax or take things for granted”.

“This is a great opportunity for us, and we need to play with a sense of urgency and a sense of aggression like we did tonight”, said Curry. They averaged 28 combined in Games 1-3.

The Warriors seemed to have grown exhausted of questions about their star backcourt’s ineffectiveness. The Warriors finished with 17 3-pointers to six for the Cavaliers.

Stephen Curry got back to dropping deep shots, chomping on that mouthpiece and even barking at LeBron James. However, James and Co. didn’t enough to contain Curry, Thompson or Harrison Barnes, who made four 3s and added 14 points.

After blowing out the Warriors by 30 in Game 3, the Cavaliers had a chance to even the series.

Warriors: Recorded their 88th overall win this season, breaking the league record they shared with the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.

On paper years from now, it’ll seem like it was easy.

But with Golden State’s golden season being threatened again, Curry and Thompson stepped up the way they did in the Western Conference finals. Golden State held a 79-77 advantage after three quarters before the Cavaliers scored the first four points of the fourth. But for now, all James is thinking about is Game 5.

“If we continue to battle and defend, eventually our offence will get going”.

“We have to understand that this series is not over”.

Unlike in Game 3, when they fell into an early hole and never recovered, the Warriors came out strong and stayed step for step with the Cavaliers.

His second ring in 2013 with Miami came when the Heat needed to win two elimination games in the finals to oust the San Antonio Spurs in what became a dramatic seven-game matchup, highlighted by Ray Allen’s overtime-forcing 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds left in Game 6.

The chips are obviously stacked a lot higher against James this time. “Being a confident bunch, we feel like the chips have been stacked up against us all year anyway”.

Golden State and Cleveland haven’t played many nailbiters in these playoffs.

Irving and James took 33 of Cleveland’s 38 shots in the second half and made 16 of the team’s 18 field goals. Then Golden State went on a 14-3 run to take control of the game.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) questions a call, during the second half against the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of basketball’s NBA Finals in Cleveland, Friday, June 10, 2016.

Jefferson has not been told if he’ll start in Game 4, and James wouldn’t offer any preference on the lineup. The Warriors won 108-97. Cleveland’s offense devolved into a huge mess at the start of the fourth quarter, with a bevy of isos and little ball movement against a locked-in Warriors defense resulting in little success.

Stephen Curry, who was held below 20 points in the first three games of the series, finished with 38 points, his second most in a game this postseason and the second most against a James team in the NBA Finals (Russell Westbrook scored 43 in 2012).

James Michael McAdoo was in the first-quarter rotation, after not playing a single second in any of Golden State’s last 12 games.