CLEVELAND: All of the attention regarding Kevin Love before the game ultimately didn’t matter. Love’s role didn’t determine the outcome of Game 4 — the long-awaited outburst from the Splash Brothers did.
Steph Curry scored 38 points and Klay Thompson scored 25 in the Golden State Warriors’ 108-97 victory Friday in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The Warriors took a commanding 3-1 lead in the series and can close out their second title in as many years over the Cavs on Monday night at Oracle Arena.
It was the Cavs’ first postseason loss at home after winning their first eight.
Curry and Thompson strung together their best joint performance of this series and the Cavs countered by dribbling their way to the brink of extinction.
Irving and James took turns dribbling, dribbling, dribbling through more isolation sets in the second half, particularly the fourth quarter, with little success. They went nearly seven minutes between baskets in the fourth, while the Warriors countered with Harrison Barnes’ fourth 3-pointer of the game to stretch the lead to 93-84 — their largest of the night — with 5:56 to play.
When the Cavs tried to rally, the Warriors’ defense stiffened. Draymond Green blocked James at the rim on a drive, then Thompson blocked Irving at the rim in transition. The Cavs shot 9-of-21 in the fourth quarter.
Kyrie Irving scored 34 points, but was 3-of-10 shooting in the fourth quarter. James had 25 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, falling an assist shy of his 16th postseason triple-double and seventh in his NBA Finals career.
Tempers flared in the final minutes when Green fell down and James tried stepping over his head as Green stood up. Players had to be separated and a double foul was called. Play was halted a few minutes later when a shirtless fan ran on the court and was apprehended by a slew of security guards.
Curry and Thompson caught fire in the third quarter when they combined for 21 of the Warriors’ 29 points to turn a five-point halftime deficit into a 79-77 lead entering the fourth. It was Curry’s first 20-point game of this series.
Coach Tyronn Lue made the gutsy call to bench Love, his $110 million power forward, and stick with the starting lineup that worked so well together in a 120-90 win in Game 3 on Wednesday.
It was Love’s first game off the bench since April 14, 2010. He entered for Tristan Thompson seven minutes into the game and made his first shot off an offensive rebound — a theme throughout the first half. The Cavs grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the first half and turned them into 17 second-chance points. Tristan Thompson had half of those offensive rebounds in the half and the Cavs held a 55-50 lead at the break.
The decision to bench Love was essentially made shortly after Game 3, which Love missed with a concussion sustained in Game 2. But it wasn’t made official until shortly before the opening tip. Love wasn’t cleared from the concussion protocol until about an hour prior to the game when he arrived at the arena.
Love had 11 points and five rebounds off the bench, J.R. Smith scored 10 points and Thompson finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Barnes scored 14 points for the Warriors, Green had nine points and 12 rebounds and Andre Iguodala had 10 points, seven assists and six rebounds off the bench.
Now the Cavs face the daunting task of having to beat the Warriors three consecutive times. They haven’t lost three in a row all season.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.