The Warriors are one win away from their second consecutive NBA title after taking a 3-1 series lead with Friday’s 108-97 win in Cleveland.
GAME LEADERS
Game 5 at Oracle ArenaMonday, June 13, at 6 p.m.
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The Warriors are one win away from their second consecutive NBA title after taking a 3-1 series lead with Friday’s 108-97 win in Cleveland.
It got to that point behind an NBA Finals single-game record 17 made 3-pointers and some stingy Warriors defense in the second half. The Warriors actually had more made treys than two-point field goals (16), and not surprisingly, it was the Splash Brothers leading the way in that department.
Stephen Curry made seven 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 38 points, Klay Thompson made four treys for 25 points and Harrison Barnes stepped up with four threes for 14 points as the Dubs bounced back from their Game 3 defeat.
After the first three games of the NBA Finals resulted in lopsided victories – two for the Dubs and one for Cleveland – Game 4 was much more competitive. In fact, neither team led by more than four points for the first 20 minutes of the game. The Cavs surged ahead with an 11-2 run that ended the first half and started the second. The Dubs trailed by as many as eight points early in the third quarter, but the Warriors had an answer.
Six of the Dubs’ first seven made field goals in the third quarter were 3-pointers, and they re-took the lead on Curry’s third made trey of the period with 4:07 left. The Dubs led by as many as six after Draymond Green found a cutting Andre Iguodala for a dunk, but Cleveland responded with eight unanswered points.
But in the fourth quarter, it was all Warriors. The 18th and final lead change of the game came via a Harrison Barnes 3-pointer, and the Dubs padded their advantage with Stephen Curry on the bench. He sat out the first four and a half minutes of the final quarter, and he re-entered the game with the Dubs up by four.
Curry and company finished the job, with the assistance of another big three by Barnes that put the Dubs up by nine with 5:56 left in the game. That trey came in the middle of a six-and-a-half-minute stretch in which the Cavs were held without a field goal, and Cleveland never threatened to get back into the game.
Now the NBA Finals shift back to Oracle Arena for Game 5, and the Warriors will look to win the series and their second straight NBA title in front of their home fans.