CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers set all types of NBA Finals records in Game 4, a rout that moved the series back to a 3-1 lead.
Nobody should lose a game when they score 86 points in the first half and hit 24 3-pointers. Those are numbers the Warriors are used to putting up. The Cavaliers were unstoppable on offense, and for their championship standards, Golden State was dreadful on defense. The Cavs deserve credit. It was a Cleveland clinic.
“We knew that we weren’t going to keep them quiet from the three-point line the whole series,” Steve Kerr said postgame. “I thought they played a tremendous game.”
However… Cleveland’s iron grip over the flow of the game was not something it earned completely on their own. Four separate Warriors players were whistled for two fouls each in the first quarter. Forget about the 22 first quarter free throws the Cavs shot for a second.
The foul trouble, and all the ticky-tack calls, made the Warriors play tentatively on defense. It opened a window for Cleveland to be the aggressors. When the Warriors aren’t able to play their aggressive style of defense, it negatively impacts all of their other strengths. The bad calls mattered.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” Draymond Green said in the locker room. “They were very aggressive. But when everyone has two fouls, it’s hard to match the physicality.”
Listen, there were bad calls for both sides all night. The free throw discrepancy eventually evened out. But it was clear to so many observers that the officials lost control of the game — a contest that took nearly three hours to complete. The refs were so confused in the third quarter, they accidentally ejected Draymond, before retroactively calling a previous technical on Steve Kerr.
Huh?
“After calling the loose ball foul on Draymond Green, I noticed the reaction by coach Kerr and then assessed the technical foul,” official John Goble told pool reporter Brian Mahoney after the game. “In the moment, I thought I had verbalized to the table that the technical foul was on coach Kerr. After looking at the video, I did not verbalize to the table and looking at the video I should have done a better job of making sure that the table knew the technical foul was on Kerr.”
Bringing up the referees isn’t me making an excuse for the Warriors. They without question got punched in the mouth and didn’t fight back nearly hard enough. Steph Curry was hesitant with the basketball in his hands and scored just 16 points. The bench had no pizzazz. Kevin Durant was really the only one who played up to his standard (35 points on 22 shots).
If a legitimate officiating crew was working Game 4 of the NBA Finals, who knows what happens? The Warriors should’ve lost by 35 considering the circumstances, but they kept clawing within 13.
Being the overbearing physical team was Cleveland’s game plan, and it finally played out in their favor. They’ll try and play this exact same way in Game 5 on Monday at Oracle Arena. Tristan Thompson came alive early in the first quarter, both his teammates and the crowd fed off the energy. Iman Shumpert was getting away with holds on Curry, fouls that were being whistled the other way.
“It was just an incredibly physical game,” Kerr said. “That was obvious from the beginning. Ton of fouls called early, a lot of holding and grabbing and pushing and shoving. It got out of hand a little bit, and the third quarter it seemed like the game was stopping every time.”
A problem for the Warriors in general with referees is that the team tends to lose its composure when calls aren’t going their way. Draymond isn’t the only culprit here. Zaza Pachulia let the physicality get the best of him when he punched Shumpert in the groin during a third quarter melee. It’s a play that could end up being reviewed by the NBA, and a suspension is not out of the question. Durant himself even had a moment where he and LeBron were jawing back and forth. Kerr was basically begging for a technical in the first quarter, and assistant Mike Brown had to restrain him more than once from the bench.
I get it. It’s the NBA Finals. A championship is on the line. But the Warriors are at their absolute best when they’re the ones getting under the other teams’ skin. When the whole team lets the referees get inside their head, Golden State tends to slip up defensively. They tend to lose the dizzying ball movement that made them famous. They settle for poor shot selection — 11-for-39 from downtown on Friday. They were shook.
With that said, the Warriors did not say anything Friday postgame that will levy a $25,000 fine. They didn’t want to be whiners. They are wearing this loss on the chin, and apparently had a very productive conversation after the loss before reporters infiltrated the premises.
“I love the vibe we had in the locker room after the game, understanding what we need to do differently to play better, to have a better first punch in that first six minutes, to play with more force and aggressiveness and physicality,” Curry said. “Talked about it. Going home is a good feeling, but it has to go with playing better. We obviously know you can’t just go home and expect to win.”
That’s the goal in Game 5. Punch first. And at home in Oracle Arena, the officials probably won’t be blowing their whistles if the Warriors accidentally breathe on a Cavalier.