Irving saves his best for when Cavs face Finals elimination

After breaking the record for most points in a half, the Cavs weren’t done breaking records.

Or 137 in a game.

Irving hit 15-of-27 shots from the floor, going 7-of-12 from 3-point range to set the pace for a finals record 24 3-points on 45 attempts.

LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers handles the ball against Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors in the fourth quarter in Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena on June 9, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. “They don’t just lay down and die”, Durant said. “They didn’t do it by luck”. We got to take this game and do it with efficiency, competitive defense and alertness and awareness for 48 minutes. That won’t happen now, but there’s still a chance for them to get it done in seven. It’s not only because we didn’t play well.

SIMON: Yeah, if you can imagine – because they added Kevin Durant.

Cleveland took a whopping 22 free throws in the first quarter of Game 1, and had it not made just 14, would have scored well over 50 points.

The Warriors clearly didn’t play their greatest game of the series, but it was hard to see what they or any other team could’ve done to beat the Cavs with the way they shot the three in Game 4. “So do we get him the ball more? So we have to do that (tonight) as well”. It was given to Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr instead.

“Just try to make him play in a crowd as much as possible”. At the end of the day, we want to just try to put ourselves in position to play another game, and we did that and hopefully we can do it Monday night where we can come back here.

Coming home for Game 5 the Warriors sounded supremely confident that they can shake off that Game 4 lapse and end this thing on their home court.

It’s nearly expected that James will continue to raise his game, but it’s less certain which Cavs will step up beside him. So we know what our keys to victory is.

“We have a golden opportunity going home on Monday to close this thing out”.

“Our mindset has to be winning games and not smiling back and forth or talking and playing”, Lue said.

Ahead of Game 5, betting site OddsShark, listed Golden State as an 8.5-point betting favorite to take it all with the over/under at 231.5 points, even after the impressive Cavaliers win on Friday.

I wait all week to say time for sports.

“Last game, in game four, I thought that’s who we are”.

The Warriors know all-too well how quickly 3-1 finals leads can vanish.

On Friday night, the Cavs turned anger over some comments made by Golden State’s motor-mouthed forward Draymond Green into energy and their best performance this season. “Shoot-around went well, guys were feeling confident and positive, and we came out and we did what we were supposed to do”. “And then all of a sudden you get slapped in the face”. We believe that we have enough here to win a championship.

But Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue kept insisting that he would not change his lineup or his team’s plan of attack and it paid off in the Game 4 rout by the Cavs.