For the second year in a row, Golden State has a commanding 3-0 lead over Cleveland in the NBA Finals. But unlike last year’s Game 4 — a Cavaliers rout spearheaded by a 40-point performance from Kyrie Irving — the Warriors will be able to break out the brooms and clinch a series sweep over their Eastern Conference rival.
Don’t expect Golden State to need another long-range dagger from Kevin Durant to seal the game in the final minute, either. Game 4 projects to be a drubbing for two reasons.
First, it’s obvious that aside from LeBron James’ herculean performances, Cleveland is nowhere near as equipped to defeat the Warriors as they have been in past years. I mean, the Cavaliers were miles away from Stephen Curry and company in last year’s Finals, as they were outscored by a decisive +7.0 margin over the five-game series. Of course, that was when they still had Irving too.
This year, however, Cleveland came into the series with one of the worst defensive efficiency ratings for a conference champion in recent memory and had little supporting help around LeBron, save for the steady Kevin Love, who is averaging 21 points and 12 rebounds during these Finals. With respect to the Cavaliers’ atrocious defense in particular, there is little reason to think that the Warriors will not continue to score at will, seeing as they are averaging nearly 119 points over the past three games.
More importantly, there is no reason to expect that Curry and Klay Thompson will shoot as poorly as they did in Game 3. Surely the Splash Brothers are motivated to rebound after their combined 7-27 outing — and if Kevin Durant can carry some of the momentum from his phenomenal performance on Wednesday night…oh boy, Golden State might drop 200.
OK, obviously 200 points is a bit of a stretch. But how about 130? Surely that will be enough to finish off LeBron, as I don’t expect the King to muster nearly enough energy to prevent a sweep.
Combined with the fact that the spread for this game has surprisingly dropped from its opening line of -5.5 to just -4.5, I’m confidently picking Golden State to not only cover the spread, but win in convincing fashion to close out the 2017-18 season.
Golden State 130, Cleveland 105
Bet #1: Warriors (-4.5) over Cavaliers
Bet #2: Warriors Over 110 points (-110)
