The Cleveland Cavaliers kept their championship aspirations alive on Friday night after grabbing a critical win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
The Cavaliers came out a highly motivated team from the get-go putting together a historic first half that led to their first win in the series. Following the game, Kyrie Irving revealed that the talk around the Warriors provided his team with much-needed extra motivation, according to Basketball Insiders.
“You add, of course, some chatter in there, and that adds some extra motivation,” said Kyrie Irving after leading all scorers with 40 points. “And you give us a day in between, and we were ready to come out. Especially me, because that taste wouldn’t have been the same if we would have lost tonight and they would have celebrated on our home floor. So I’ll just leave that at that.”
Irving led the charge offensively for Cleveland producing a game-high 40 points on 15-of-27 shooting including knocking down seven triples. It was a collective team effort that saw them drill an NBA Finals’ record 24 three-pointers on 53.3 percent shooting and 52.9 percent from the field.
The All-Star guard has been an offensive force in the series averaging 30.3 points while scoring more than 20 points in three of the four games while recording more than 35 points twice. If the Cavaliers hope to keep it going against the Warriors, it will require more huge scoring nights from Irving.
This is a major uphill battle for Cleveland, but they have the experience of being in almost the exact same situation last year. That said, they clearly have the motivation to get it done.