Cavs halt Warriors perfect post-season, party in Game 4

The Warriors and Cavaliers came into the NBA Finals with a combined 24-1 playoff record.

At total of 7 technicals - 4 on Golden State and 3 on the Cavs - and a flagrant foul on Kevin Love, who scored 23 points and had 5 rebounds, were handed out. This set the tone for the entire quarter (49 points, the highest in an National Basketball Association playoff game ever) and for the first half (86 points, highest ever in National Basketball Association finals history). They had a chance to go 16-0 and cement themselves as the greatest team of all time.

"We feel like any game that we walk on the floor we have a great game plan and we expect to win".

I know what you're all thinking.

Irving led all scorers with 40 points and contributed seven assists and seven 3-pointers.

This year is almost the same despite the Cavs being winless, James averaging 32.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.6 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.38 blocked shots, standing second only in blocks and rebounds. Finally, Tristan Thompson emerged with a 10-rebound performance, with half of those coming in the first five minutes of action. But then you add, of course, some chatter in there, and that adds some extra motivation. "But I relish in that challenge".

In Game 5 past year, he dropped 41 points on 70 percent shooting from the field. The offensive explosion was also fueled by 21 trips to the free-throw line, though Cleveland missed a golden opportunity to score even more by missing eight of those attempts.

"They blitzed us", Klay Thompson said of that first quarter. "One of the things we did right was not turn the ball over".

The Los Angeles Lakers previously held the record for most points in a half in Finals history, scoring 82 points in 1987. They finished with 68 points mainly due to Kevin Durant's continued excellence on the attacking end. Curry simply got no peace, and no space in Game 4, finishing with 14 points, his worst return in a match in almost four months.

"We made shots and we played well defensively", Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue said. "While KD has been the man the Cavs have not been able to stop scoring, Curry's support had been crucial to the Warriors" 3-0 lead. The previous record for a first quarter was 43 - set twice in the 1967 Finals by Philadelphia, against the San Francisco Warriors.

Later in the quarter, confusion arose as Green seemingly received his second technical foul of the game that would have resulted in an automatic ejection.

However, the halftime boxscore listed the first technical on Green. The Cavs swarmed the Warriors on defense, monkey-wrenching Golden State's attractive offense, and the Cavs just went berserk from three-point land.

"We have championship DNA as well".

"We just ― we knew we had to make it physical".

On Thursday, Green, whose suspension from last year's Game 5 for hitting James in the groin helped swing the series to Cleveland, said he was looking forward to celebrating on Cleveland's home floor for the second time in three years. "We have to do a better job of that".

A year ago the Cavs stunned everyone by becoming the first team ever to erase a 3-1 deficit in the Finals to win the final 3 games and end 52-years of sports torment for a city that is identified nationally by the success - or lack of - of its sports franchises.

The defending champions came into Friday's meeting at the Quicken Loans Arena 3-0 down in the best-of-seven series with the Warriors standing on the brink of history, seeking to become the first side to go 16-0 in the playoffs.