Kyrie Irving’s base with 40 points, including seven three-pointers, emerged as the great leader of the Cleveland Cavaliers who swept the Golden State Warriors 137-116 in the fourth game of the NBA Finals and avoided the sweep.
Irving reached the game with the best scorer inspiration so far in the series that dominate the Warriors 3-1 and with forward LeBron James, who contributed his second consecutive triple-double, ninth as a pro in the playoffs, from the first Quarter left already defined the party in their favor with partial of 49-33.
The Cavaliers extended the advantage to rest with the 86-68 quarter, the highest score so far in the finals after surpassing the 79 that the Boston Celtics achieved against the Los Angeles Lakers on May 27, 1985.
The Cavaliers when they were swept in the 2007 Finals against the Spurs of San Antonio, only in one party could score 86 points.
James, who topped Michael Jordan in third place in the NBA Finals list of top scorers, did with the first basket that scored a perfect penetration in the match, he scored 31 points (11-22, 3-8 , 6-10), 11 assists and 10 rebounds.
The triple-double also allowed him to beat another historic mark by overcoming the eight that the legendary Magic Johnson won with the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoff competition.
Next to Irving and James, power forward Kevin Love also made his offensive contribution by getting 23 points that helped the cause of the Cavaliers, defending the championship title, won last year and was the first of Its history, which allowed the city of Cleveland to have a national one since 1964.
While the escort J.R. Smith was also inspired by the shots from outside the perimeter and contributed 15 points with five triples of nine attempts and completed the list of four Cavaliers players who had double digits.
The Cavaliers once again used, with the permission of the referees, all sorts of hard-hitting action that hurt the Warriors, and even James himself lost his sportsmanship by verbally dealing with forward Kevin Durant to generate, as did the Last year with power forward Draymond Green, the provocation seeking his expulsion and subsequent sanction.
He did not make it, but he kept the Warriors from going back in the fourth quarter when after 18 points they were down 11 (113-102) and 11 minutes to go.
James’ unsportsmanlike stance also extended to another Cavaliers star personal circle aficionado who was ousted from the game after verbally offending Warriors reserve forward Matt Barnes.
Against this backdrop, the Cavaliers managed to stay alive in the fight for the NBA title, which they defend as champions, and they broke the Warriors the perfect mark of 15-0 they had in the final phase, something that nobody so far had gotten.
As a team the Cavaliers achieved a 53 (46-87) percent accuracy in the field shots and 53 (24-45) of three-pointers, compared to 45 (39-87) and 28 (11-39), respectively, Of the Warriors, who also lost the fight under the hoops in the indoor game with 40 rebounds for 41 of Cleveland.
“We have shown that we are a team with DNA champions,” James said at the end of the game, while denying that he had tried to provoke Durant to be expelled. “The only thing that counts is the victory we needed and now we have to play the fifth game.”
No team in NBA history has trailed a 0-3 disadvantage, but the Cavaliers last year already topped 1-3 with which they also reached the fifth game, which was played on the same stage as the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Where on Monday they will face again.
Durant with 35 points was the leader of the Warriors’ attack that had five players with double digit numbers, including base Stephen Curry who this time disappeared as happened last year in games that lost the Golden State team by scoring only 14 so many, by 13 who had the escort Klay Thompson.
Both players this time could not be a winning factor of the Warriors and there was one of the keys of the defeat of the team of Golden State, that hopes not to repeat the historical collapse that suffered last year to put in the same situation of advantage of 3 -1.
