J.R. Smith’s Game 1 gaffe really did break LeBron James

A James slam dunk capped a 14-4 Cavs run to open the second quarter, putting Cleveland ahead 39-38, but Golden State answered with a 11-4 run and stretched the half-time lead to 61-52.

With the possibility of James leaving Cleveland as a free agent in the offseason, we can expect Barkley to have another hot take. “I just appreciate what he’s done for us all season”.

Yes, the expectation is that this run keeps going – it has every reason to keep going – the truth remains that no one can definitively say how long something special like this will last, and most of the time, it doesn’t last as long as you’d think.

Steph Curry led all scorers in Game 4, finishing with 37 points on 12-for-27 shooting, including a 7-for-15 mark from long-range and a flawless 6-of-6 from the stripe – adding six boards, four assists, three steals and three blocked shots.

The Cavaliers know they must win tonight to avoid being swept in the NBA Finals by the Golden State Warriors.

I selfishly was hoping Durant would leave.

James, 33, has carried the Cavs all season to the finals and is averaging just shy of a triple-double per game this series.

Brown was working his 17th NBA Finals.

It was the 28th consecutive play-off game in which he has scored at least 20 points. There was no way the Cavs could hold out hope of any comeback and Bron and coach Tye Lue knew it.

There were still a few seconds left on the clock when the Golden State Warriors stormed off their bench to begin a celebration that wasn’t guaranteed. “He’s good as Michael Jordan or compete like Michael Jordan, ‘ I’m just got to slap of you right on the spot”.

In the 48 years of the award, only one player has been on the losing team of the series and won the Finals MVP.

LeBron James played out the NBA Finals with a broken hand after punching a blackboard in frustration following the Cavaliers’ heartbreaking Game 1 defeat.

The three-time champion revealed he had played the last three matches with a broken right hand, sustained after he scored his best play-off points haul of 51 in the opener.

“It was self-inflicted”, he said. Catch up on all the top individual performances around the league in the Top Performers series.

Not wanting to give the Cavs or their fans any hope despite the fact that no team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in the National Basketball Association playoffs, the Warriors built a nine-point halftime lead when Curry ignored a closeout by James and dropped a 3-pointer.

If James does go back on his stated intention to retire here, it will be because he deems the organization failed to maintain a championship-caliber team around him. He fights and competes to the end. Sometimes you can give everything you’ve got and still come up short. He iced the hand after games and used a tennis ball to strengthen his grip and try to push out the swelling on off days, sources said.