Draymond Green confident Cavs won’t repeat torrid shooting in Game 5

But where Jordan went on to sit atop of the National Basketball Association pedestal on six different occasions – never failing to return empty handed upon reaching the Finals – LeBron has had to endure a bittersweet ride during the course of his eight (and counting) trips to the NBA’s championship round.

So what did we learn in Game 4? Game 3 ended up how it ended up – this is not to say the Cavaliers are as good as the Warriors, because there’s no evidence to suggest as such.

A J.R. Smith three-pointer from Curry range gave the Cavaliers a 60-45 lead early in the second quarter and the margin got bigger from there.

The Golden State Warriors would have a long night with only Kevin Durant (35 points) really providing any consistent production. Their defense continued to be nowhere to be found. Last night? The Cavaliers shot around 55% (17-of-31) on these open shots, while the Warriors shot a disgusting 16.7% (4-of-24).

After bulldozing their way to three fifteen straight wins in the postseason, the Golden State Warriors were unable to eliminate the Cleveland Cavaliers last night in Ohio. The Cavaliers became an irritant to the Warriors, and that is what many expected of them coming into the finals. Despite being effective on both ends of the floor, James has struggled during the closing moments of games – a narrative all too well known to his critics. And getting swept is something that you never want to have happen – especially this point. The Cavaliers won Game 4 with relative ease. The officials resorted to the Replay Center in several occasions and also confused the everyone with the non-ejection of Draymond Green.

“After calling the loose ball foul on Draymond Green, I noticed the reaction by coach Kerr and then assessed the technical foul”, Goble said.

Can the Cavaliers do it again? That says it all. Moreover, there is little resemblance between the team that took the floor for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals and the team that will walk into Oracle Arena Monday night for Game 5 of the 2017 Finals. However, the heart of Cleveland’s team was Kyrie Irving.

James and Durant had a heated verbal exchange for an extended stretch midway into the third quarter while referees were reviewing a foul by Love on Durant, but they slapped hands when they returned to play. James finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for his ninth triple-double, passing Magic Johnson for first place in Finals history.

Every time the Warriors made a push, the Cavaliers answered with a timely shot. For everything the Warriors have going for them, Cleveland has the two best “go get me a bucket” guys in this series. But after overcoming a 3-1 deficit to win the title last season against the Warriors, the Cavs at least showed that they were going to make the Warriors fight for it, even if it is just one more night.

Irving didn’t get hugely different shots than he did in Games 1 and 2.

“I think the biggest thing, though, was they brought a level of physicality that we did not match”. He is now a Warrior, and the leading candidate to be named Finals MVP.