MANILA, Philippines — The Cleveland Cavaliers simply showed why they are the defending champions.
On the verge of being eliminated for the title, the Cavaliers scored a 137-116 wire-to-wire Game Four victory over the Golden State Warriors to register their first win in the NBA Finals, Saturday here.
The Wine and Gold banked on a hot shooting from downtown capitalized on their freebies to build an early first-quarter lead over their trilogy foes. They posted a record-setting opening quarter production of 49 points by any team in playoffs history to deal the challengers their first loss in the post-season.
LeBron James and Kyrie Irving set the tone early on, facilitating and adding to the Cavaliers' lead. The league’s four-time MVP finished with another triple-double (31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists)—the most in the Finals—to go with the hotshot’s guard’s team-best 40 markers and seven boards.
Kevin Durant was still the best player off the Golden State side with 35 points, but his effort wasn’t enough to again pull the rug on the hosts. Draymond Green and Stephen Curry only had 16 and 14 respectively.
Cleveland also broke the Finals record of 18 3-pointers with their 24 total treys by the end of the game.
The Cavaliers will again try to stave off elimination when the series swings back to Oakland this Monday. Tip-off is at 8 a.m.