Golden State Warrior head coach Steve Kerr decided to go small right away to start Game 4.
It didn’t work out so well.
Actually, the Warriors had some open looks, and just didn’t hit them. Not exactly Kerr’s fault, as he put them in good position. The defense was an early problem; Cleveland’s big men had their way early, and Harrison Barnes couldn’t box out Tristan Thompson to save the series. Cleveland got off to a 7-0 start before Kerr would called timeout.
Golden State started playing much better after Kerr’s time out, and started making their shots. The Cavaliers went cold, and all of a sudden, the Warriors were up by seven points after the first quarter.
The second quarter was back-and-forth, until Cleveland reverted back to “The LeBron James ISO Offense”. Things got even more distraught when James fell into the cameramen sitting right next to the court (which is ridiculous by the way), and wouldn’t get up. He hit his head on one of the cameras and was bleeding. The series teetered in the balance, but James would be okay, and made both of his ensuing free throws. The quarter would finish with Golden State up by 12 points.
David Blatt gave the Cavaliers an animated halftime speech, and they responded with back-to-back three pointers. Out of nowhere, Golden State went ice cold, missing several layups in a row. It was Cleveland’s turn to make a run, and it was capped off by a Dellavedova lob to James for a dunk to cut Golden State’s lead to three.
Some strong play from Andre Iguodala helped Golden State keep the lead going into the fourth, but Cleveland’s advantage on the boards in the third quarter was easy to see. Despite their rebounding struggles, the Warriors led the game after the third quarter by six.
With LeBron James on the bench, Golden State scored four quick points to start the fourth quarter. The Cavaliers had no answers for the rest of the game — even with an exhausted LeBron James back in the game. The Warriors ended up winning by a score of 103-82.
Despite the nerve-racking start to the game for Golden State, the small lineup seemed to work out well, as this was the first game in the series in which the Warriors scored over 100 points. The Warriors’ centers Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli played minimal minutes — Ezeli didn’t play at all. This led to Cleveland’s center Timothy Mozgov scoring a game-high 26 points, but the offense was much better without either center playing.
Cleveland struggled to stop Golden State all night, although they did have the lead cut to three at one point. The biggest reason for the differential in the score was obviously the surprisingly normal play from LeBron James, who only scored 20 points in the game while shooting 7-22 from the field. James was not going to play out-of-this-world every minute of this Finals, and it showed how vulnerable Cleveland is without his production.
The obvious MVP of this series for the Warriors has been Andre Igoudala, and that held up true tonight. He scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while also playing tremendous defense on James. His effort has not gone unnoticed this series, and earned him the start over Bogut tonight.
Stephen Curry got back on track to a degree tonight, as he also had 22 points for the Warriors. He was efficient while doing it, shooting 47% from the field, and 4/7 from the three point line.
J.R. Smith had another sub-par performance tonight, scoring four points on 2-12 shooting (including 0-8 from three). The Cavaliers will need some production from their sixth man in Game Five if they want to win the pivotal game.
The most polarizing player in the series, Matthew Dellavedova, had a poor game as well, scoring 10 points on 3-14 shooting.
Game Five will be on Sunday, June 14th at 8:00 pm EST.
With the series now tied 2-2, Game Five will be an important game for both teams.
