Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala scored 22 points apiece and the Warriors, showing their depth and why they were the league’s best team all season, squared the finals at 2-2 on Thursday night with a 103-82 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Game 5 is Sunday night at Oakland’s rambunctious Oracle Arena, where the teams split two overtime games last week.
“We’ve seen it all year, every team we go up against, we use our strength in numbers,” said Iguodala, who made a surprise start. “Not only do we have a good first unit but we’ve got a second unit that is coming at you with the same type of speed, same type of high-IQ basketball. It’s hard to keep up with us.
“We’re going to try to keep it going.”
LeBron James scored 20 points — 21 under his average in the series — with 12 rebounds and eight assists, but Cleveland’s megastar, who played with a cut on his head sustained in the first half, didn’t score in the fourth quarter and couldn’t do enough for the undermanned Cavaliers.
Timofey Mozgov led Cleveland with 28 points and guard Matthew Dellavedova, again battling leg cramps after a hospital stay for dehydration, had 10. The Cavs shot just 2 of 18 from the field in the fourth quarter, and got nothing from their bench as J.R. Smith missed all eight 3-pointers and Cleveland’s reserves scored seven points.
Draymond Green added 17 points and Harrison Barnes had 14 for Golden State, which didn’t lose three straight games all season while racking up 67 wins.
Looking for a spark, Kerr decided to go “small” with his starting lineup, putting Iguodala at forward, moving Green to center and benching struggling big man Andrew Bogut. Kerr initially said he wouldn’t make any changes, but went with a lineup that worked well late in Game 3, when the Warriors scored 36 points and trimmed a 20-point deficit to one.