If beat the Cavaliers in Game 4 in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, they will be the first team to go undefeated in an National Basketball Association playoffs.
Durant made all the difference Wednesday night, leading the Warriors in scoring with 31 points and making the all-important clutch three-pointer with 45 seconds to go in the fourth quarter to give his side a one-point lead at 114-113.
With Kerr back on the bench for the second straight game after battling back pain, Golden State, which made a record 9 3-pointers in the first quarter and finished 16 of 33 behind the arc, also got just what it needed from its reserves as Andre Iguodala had several big plays, none bigger than stripping James of the ball on a potential tying 3-pointer with 12.6 seconds left.
Has that been a goal for this Golden State team, who won 73 games last season but didn't win a championship? One win away from a flawless 16-0 playoffs. J.R. Smith finally got started. James dropped to the floor and a hush fell over Cleveland's crowd as the three-time champ laid in the foul lane.
The Warriors' 68 points were the most by a trailing team at halftime in the last 20 seasons.
But Durant's three-point dagger over James was precisely the type of play the Warriors must have had in mind when they signed him last July in hopes of avenging their NBA Finals loss to the Cavs previous year.
"Just the combination of offense and defense, the talent that they've been able to amass, it puts them in position where this is a dynasty to me", ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy said before the NBA Finals. Both teams exchanged ferocious blows.
"Believeland is not going to give up and we're going to keep fighting", Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. "Glad that we got the monkey off our back in terms of just getting one win in this series in terms of going against this great team".
Cavaliers extend National Basketball Association finals after ending Warriors' ideal run
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. And front and centre, as he always is when the Cavs are doing special things, was LeBron James , the best player in the world.
"We made shots", Lue said in an understatement.
Splash brothers Thompson and Stephen Curry totaled for 11 of the Warriors 16 threes on the night with Thompson having the hot hand early, erupting for 16 points in the opening period before finishing the game with 30 points. Curry, who has benefited more than any other player by Durant's arrival and is healthy in these Finals, added 13 rebounds and six assists.
This time, the Cavs held a lead until late in the fourth quarter, but a furious fourth-quarter comeback led Golden State to victory.
"A lot of people said we couldn't".
Thompson missed the only shot he took and pulled down only three rebounds.
It probably was before, but they were taking the one-game-at-a-time approach and not looking ahead. "So mentally and physically, I got to prepare myself for that". "So we won't be exhausted because we got adrenaline on our side and we got to act like this is a do-or-die situation", Thompson said. "We didn't let a call we didn't like or a turnover or a missed assignment linger over to the next play".
Durant has been a tremendous in these finals and yet the Warriors' biggest addition to this year's title round might be that they have the old Steph Curry back again.
The Cleveland Cavaliers avoided a sweep and denied the Golden State Warriors a ideal postseason with a 137-116 win in Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals.
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