Written by Jeff Zillgitt at USAToday.com
The first true Splash Brothers sighting of the NBA Finals came in the third quarter of Game 4.
Steph Curry made his first two three-pointers of the quarter, Klay Thompson and Curry combined for back-to-back-to-back three-pointers and Curry sank another three.
Down eight early in the third and up two headed into the fourth, the Golden State Warriors defeated theCleveland Cavaliers 108-97 on Friday.
“We were threatened, and we responded well,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
The question that had been asked often through the first three games of the Finals: when would Curry and Thompson have one of those shooting games the opponent couldn’t overcome?
The answer was Game 4 in the best contest of the series that had been defined by blowouts.
Curry made seven three-pointers and scored 38 points, and Thompson finished with 25 points and made 4-of-9 three-pointers.
“Sooner or later it’s going to happen,” Kerr said. “With guys like that, you can’t keep them down forever. Sometimes our best offense is our defense, and we were making stops and we were able to get out and run and kind of flow into our offense. So maybe they got a few extra looks from that, but mainly it was just law of averages took over.”
Curry scored 24 points in the second half, including 13 in the fourth quarter.
“Again, he’s Steph Curry. He’s the MVP for a reason,” Kerr said. “He doesn’t have the size and the strength to dominate a game physically, so he has to dominate with his skill, and that’s not an easy thing to do because your shot sometimes isn’t going to go in. But he has a lot of faith in himself, and he trusts his shot and he just kept firing, and tonight they went in.”
Golden State also set a Finals single-game record with 17 three-pointers.
The Warriors had a historic regular-season with an NBA-record 73 victories, and now – up 3-1 in the Finals – are one Finals victory from their second consecutive championship.
They can complete their masterpiece in Game 5 on Monday (9 p.m. ET, ABC).
The Cavaliers face a daunting task. Just 10 teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit to win, and the Warriors know how difficult that is. They trailed the Oklahoma City Thunder 3-1 in the Western Conference finals and won the final three games of the series.
“I’ve already told our guys Game 5 will be the hardest game of the series,” Kerr said. “Every closeout game is difficult, but when you’re at home, for a strange reason it’s even more difficult. You’ve got everybody in your ear, you’ve got friends, you’ve got family who want to come to the game and want to discuss everything.
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