Harper | Warriors lose flawless postseason but haven't lost goal for playoffs

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) shoots the ball against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the second quarter in game four of the Finals for the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena.

Powered by a record-setting first half, the Cavaliers avoided a sweep with a 137-116 win vs. the Warriors in Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals on Friday.

It forces a Game 5 in the best-of-seven series and denies the Warriors - who lead the series 3-1 - the chance to become the first team in National Basketball Association history to go undefeated throughout the playoffs.

James added 10 rebounds and 11 assists for his ninth career NBA Finals triple double.

The back-and-forth spilled over to the sidelines, where Cavs reserve Dahntay Jones received a technical foul in the second quarter when he wasn't even in the game for jawing with Kevin Durant.

"We understand who they have on their team and what they're about and how established they are, but I think that in those three losses we lost track of who we were at the time". We would love to have celebrated tonight and finished off the job, it didn't happen.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said the Cavs set the physical tone early and everything fell in line for them after that.

Trailing 3-0 going into the fourth game, the Warriors could have wrapped up the title with a victory.

In the 1st half, the Cavs set a NBA Finals and team record (regular season and postseason) for points in a half, finishing with 86. The Cavs were the beneficiaries of some truly very bad calls early in the contest and got to the line 22 times in the opening quarter en route to scoring a Finals-record 49 points in the first period alone.

LeBron James was also on fire, adding 31 points. "But I thought I heard the PA announcer say that it was on Draymond". They started the game off by scoring 49 points in the first quarter.

Oh yeah, and the Cavs broke another Finals record - the most three-pointers in a single game (24).

As the final seconds ticked off, Cleveland fans chanted "Cavs in 7".

The Cavaliers knew what they were up against on Friday night during Game 4 of the NBA Finals - and though the match-up got fairly heated at several points, the Cavs were able to pull through in the end. "They made some tough shots, but we were not sharp defensively, so there's always a combination".

Irving, in a red and gold player's edition of his Nike Kyrie 3 signature shoe, dropped 40 points in the win. One fundamental difference from the first three games of the series: Cleveland worked relentlessly to create quality three-point opportunities. While Cleveland focused on incendiary comments from the Warriors prior to Game 4, Golden State focused on the mistakes it made to allow a Game 5. You got the game f--ed up with that one. In this series, he is averaging a triple-double with 31.8 points on.540 shooting, 11.8 rebounds and 10.8 assists in 41.5 minutes. In doing so they scored more points in a quarter than any other team in post-season history when they plundered 49 in the opening 12 minutes. Cleveland came out of the gate flying, as Smith opened the game with a three-pointer, followed by a pair of Irving baskets and a layup and foul from James. He also jumped over Michael Jordan for third on the all-time NBA Finals scoring list, and he passed Jordan for the most made free throws ever in the playoffs.