2016 NBA Finals: Despite Rout of Warriors, Cavs Need Same Urgency In Game 4

CLEVELAND – Home Sweet Home.

Such truer words were never more evident than those during the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-90 romp over the Golden State Warriors.

Down 0-2 and with Kevin Love out due to a concussion suffered in a Game 3 blowout, the Cleveland cavaliers came out firing with a 9-0 run to fuel Cleveland right out the gate. The Cavaliers would lead 33-16 after the first quarter and never look back in a wire-to-wire rout.

Whatever ailments that plagued the Cavaliers out in the Bay Area in the form of taking bad shots, lack of ball movement and playing too much ISO, seemed to magically dissipate on their court in front of 20,561 witnesses.

Watching the game you could see that the Cavaliers played desperate, hungry and motivated in going back to their brand of basketball, which consists of sharp ball movement, timely sharp-shooting and crashing the glass in controlling the boards.

For the game, Cleveland out rebounded the Warriors 52-32, racked up 23 assists and shot 48 percent from three-point range in making 12 of 25 attempts. Cleveland also made their shots for once in shooting 53 percent from the field, while holding the normally-lethal Warriors to 42 percent shooting, 9-of-33 from three-point range–an astonishing 27 percent–and thanks to their scrappy defense, forced 18 turnovers.

Cleveland also got some much needed superstar-level play from Kyrie Irving who finished with 30 points, J.R. Smith with 20 and Tristan Thompson with 14 points and 13 rebounds to compliment LeBron James’ 32 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.

To say that Cleveland needed this game is an understatement, what the Cavs need to do now is get back to their Rust Belt blue-collar roots in hustling for every loose ball, continue d’ing up on Steph Curry and Klay Thompson—who finished with a combined 29 points—and maximize their possessions in making shots and attacking them in the paint.

Game 4 is for the Cavs season, while Game 3 is now in the book, Cleveland can ill afford to celebrate too much, or risk losing their newly-regained momentum.