Cavs focus on Game 4 win; Warriors try to clinch
CLEVELAND — The fashion stylist for Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green picked out seven outfits for him before the start of the NBA Finals — one for each potential game against the Cavaliers.
The selection for Game 5 is “pretty dope,” Green said. “I really don’t want to wear it, though.”
Green and his ’mates would rather finish off the Cavs in Game 4 on Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena, though guard Stephen Curry said there would be no significance in capturing their third NBA championship in four years with a sweep.
“I don’t think … that word will come out in our celebration, if we can get it done,” Curry said after the Warriors’ 110-102 win in Game 3 on Wednesday, and noted on Thursday, “Close-out games are the hardest things you can ever experience in the playoffs.”
“You never know the crazy things that can happen, turn of events in a series that could take place,” Green said. “So when you have the opportunity to close out, you want to do that.”
The Cavs and their fans face this grim reality: Teams that have lost the first three games of the NBA Finals are 0-13 for the series, and eight times it has ended in a sweep. In NBA history, teams that have fallen behind 3-0 in the playoffs are 0-131.
They also know Friday could be James’ final game with the franchise. The 33-year-old three-time NBA champion can opt out of his contract and leave in free agency — again — this summer. That dark cloud has hovered over the city all postseason.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue tried to narrow the focus on Thursday.
“Our focus is not on winning four,” Lue said. “Our focus is winning Game 4.”
“By no stretch of the imagination do we think the series Though the Warriors are in control with a 3-0 lead, both Draymond Green, left, and Stephen Curry said that the hardest part of any series is getting the clinching victory.
is over,” noted Cavs guard Rodney Hood, who scored a playoff career high 15 points in Game 3. “It’s a tough task ahead, but it’s one game to extend the series. That’s how we’re taking it.”
LeBron James led the Cavs back from a 3-1 deficit to win the franchise’s first championship in 2016 — the second of four consecutive Finals featuring these teams. But as James spoke with the media for 20 minutes
on Thursday, there was a sense he has accepted that these Warriors, with Kevin Durant, are too much to overcome.
“We’ve had an opportunity to win two of these games in this three-game series so far, and we haven’t come up with it,” said James, who is averaging 37.7 points (52.5 percent shooting), 10.7 assists and 9.0 rebounds in this year’s Finals. Then, he conceded, “Obviously, from a talent
perspective, if you’re looking at Golden State from their top five best players to our top five players, you would say they’re stacked better than us.”
After losing the first three games of last year’s Finals, the Cavs whipped the Warriors by 21 points in Game 4 before falling in five.
“A 3-0 lead and we just kind of laid an egg,” Green said of last year’s Game 4.
“We have to keep that in the back of our minds and stay hungry,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson added.
The Cavs, meanwhile, must try to forget about the missed
opportunities in Games 1 and 3 that kept them from potentially leading the series at this point.
“It’s definitely tough,” Cavs center Tristan Thompson said. At the same time, “We’re going to keep fighting. It’s the first team to four wins, right? We’re on our home floor. For ourselves and our fans, we’ve got to go out there and give everything we’ve got. And if we can do that, guys can look in the mirror and live with themselves.”