The tides turned last night for the Golden State Warriors, who have earned home-court advantage and are now 8.5-point faves going into Game 5 and -400 favorites to win the Championship.
The Warriors looked tired and unable to come up with a plan to stop LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 3 of the NBA Finals, but were able to even the series 2-2 after pulling off a blowout win in game 4.
League MVP Steph Curry came off of one of his worst games of the postseason in game 3 to find his shot again in game 4, scoring 22 points and creating offense for his teammates all night. Andre Igoudala also scored 22 points in his first start of the season, replacing Andrew Bogut in the starting lineup in a move that would give the Warriors an advantage on both sides of the court.
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Igoudala was able to shadow James throughout the game, holding him to 20 points on the night; 21 points under his series average of 41. With James bottled up, he was forced to dish to his supporting cast who were not up to the task as the Cavs shot a dismal 33% from field goal range and a miserable 14.8% from three point range. “Offensively, we were terrible,” said James. “Sometimes your offense just doesn’t show up.”
Offensively, the Warriors were able to return to what made them the best team in the league in the regular season: a fast paced spread offense that allowed their deadly accurate backcourt the space to create opportunities from long range. The result was a 103-82 win for the Warriors, who will head back to Oakland with some momentum and some confidence as their shots have finally started to fall.
“We played desperate out there, man” said Golden State’s Klay Thompson. “We played real hungry. It was just awesome to come out here and impose our will on both sides of the ball and play our brand of basketball. That’s what’s been winning us games all year.”
Game 5 between the Cavaliers and Warriors will be on Sunday night at 7pm EST.