NBA: Cavaliers avert sweep in hot-shooting, record-breaking Game 4

When LeBron James’ path to the basket was immediately sealed off in one play in the 2nd quarter, he somehow found JR Smith lingering near the half-court circle.

James then whipped a pass to Smith, who buried the 3-pointer off-balance as 2 defenders charged at him.


In one sequence, that was the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 — when it seems like there’s nowhere to go, they find a way to pull off a win.

Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 40 points with 7 3-pointers, and James added 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists as the Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors 137-116 in Cleveland on Friday (Saturday, Manila time) for their first win of the NBA finals, a game that was testy, emotionally charged and a lot of times dizzying.

And it took a high-powered performance in the 1st half led by James and torrid shooting never before seen at this stage of the season led by Irving and Love to put this series in eerily familiar territory — it’s now 3-1.

Game 5 is in Oakland on Monday (Tuesday, Manila time)

The Cavaliers made the Warriors work on every possession, and on offense they made shots — a ton of them, from everywhere on the floor and however which way.

By the end of the 1st quarter, Cleveland scored 49 points, the most in NBA finals history. The Cavaliers’ 86 points at the half were a record, too.

When the game was done, Cleveland finished with 24 3-pointers, 6 more than the previous record made by the Warriors earlier this series.

A history-making night like this wouldn’t be complete without James leaving a personal mark. His 9th career triple-double in the NBA finals overtook Magic Johnson in the all-time list.

Kevin Love contributed 23 points and 6 3-pointers for Cleveland, while JR Smith, largely quiet this series, finally awoke making 5 3-pointers for 15 points.

While James and co. found the net with ease, the Warriors shooters slumped, making only 11 of 39 3-pointers (28.2%).

Kevin Durant finished with 35 points, while Steph Curry settled for only 14 making just 4 of 13 from the field.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Warriors take Game 4, close in on back-to-back titles

CLEVELAND - The Golden State Warriors bounced back from an embarrassing road loss two days ago to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-97 on Friday and move one win away from a second consecutive NBA championship.

The win was a devastating blow to LeBron James's Cavaliers, who lost their first home game of the postseason and now trail the best-of-seven NBA Finals 3-1 with Game Five scheduled for Monday in Oakland.

"All of our guys played extremely well. We just competed like crazy," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters. "It was a great response from Game Three, where we were really embarrassed by our performance."

Stephen Curry powered Golden State, who lost by 30 points on Wednesday, by scoring a game-high 38 while Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers with 34 points. James had 25 points and 13 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the postseason.

Of the 32 teams that have faced a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals none have ever come back to win the championship.

But Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, well aware that the odds are stacked against his team, had a blunt message.

"If you don't think we can win, don't get on the plane. I just think we've got to come back anyway, so we might as well come back and play," said Lue, about the possibility of forcing a Game Six. "We've got to come back to Cleveland, don't we?"

The Warriors, who fell behind by as many as 20 points after a miserable start to Game Three, responded with a much stronger effort to start this one as each team traded shots for much of the first two quarters.

The tightly-contested first half, easily the most intense 24 minutes of the series so far, included 15 lead changes, which was more than the previous three games combined.

Cleveland looked ready to pull away to start the second half when they extended their lead to eight and whipped the home crowd into a lather but Golden State would not fold.

The Warriors quickly took over in the final quarter when they shored up their defense and kicked their offense into a higher gear.

With just under six minutes to play Harrison Barnes gave the Warriors their largest lead of the night up to that point when he drained a three-pointer for a 93-84 lead.

It marked a 17-point turnaround from the third quarter when Cleveland, who went without a field goal for a six-minute stretch of the fourth, led by eight points.

"I thought we played hard. I thought we competed. I just thought we made some defensive mistakes that cost us," said Lue. "And every time we made a mistake, they made us pay."

Late in the fourth quarter the game was briefly interrupted when a shirtless fan with "Trump Sucks" painted on his chest ran onto the court inside Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, which will host the Republican National Convention next month. (Editing by Steve Keating/Sudipto Ganguly)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Warriors top Cavaliers to square up NBA Finals

CLEVELAND - The top-seeded Golden State Warriors rediscovered their scoring touch and tied the NBA Finals at 2-2 with a crucial 103-83 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday in Game Four.



NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala each had 22 points for Golden State as the Warriors breathed new life into their title hopes.

Cleveland's Timofey Mozgov had a game-high 28 points while LeBron James, who went down hard in the second quarter after slamming his head on a camera, finished with 20 points on 7-of-22 shooting.

Game Five is scheduled for Sunday in Oakland.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Ian Ransom)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Spurs crush Heat again, move one win from NBA title

MIAMI - The visiting San Antonio Spurs dominated the Miami Heat again, crushing the two-time defending champions 107-86 in Game Four of the NBA Finals on Thursday to move within one victory of clinching the championship.

The one-sided win gave the Spurs, who routed the Heat by 19 points in Game Three in Miami, a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and put them in position to claim a fifth championship in 15 years when the series shifts to San Antonio for Game Five on Sunday.

Kawhi Leonard led San Antonio's balanced, ball-sharing attack with 20 points and Tony Parker added 19 as all 13 players joined in the scoring spree for the Spurs, who led 55-36 at the intermission.

James, a shadow of himself during the first half, came alive in the third quarter in scoring 19 of Miami's 21 points but it was not enough to slow the dazzling Spurs. James led the Heat with 28 points, with Chris Bosh next highest with 12.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com