The Golden State Warriors, who made history with a 73-win regular season, can become the seventh franchise to win consecutive NBA titles with a victory in Game 5 on Monday night.
Golden State can close out the Cleveland Cavaliers on their home court at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors are 50-3 this season.
The Warriors will have to do it without power forward Draymond Green, who is suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals after he was assessed a flagrant foul 1 by the league for his actions against Cavaliers forward LeBron James in Game 4 on Friday night.
Stephen Curry found his long-range touch and scored 38 points as the Warriors rebounded from a 30-point loss by beating the Cavs 108-97 in Game 4 and taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.
The win put the Warriors on the brink of back-to-back championships.
“It’ s going to be our biggest game of the year, obviously,” said Curry, the two-time reigning NBA MVP. “We always talk about just because we’ re going home doesn’ t mean you can relax or take things for granted. You work all regular season to have home-court advantage, and this is a great opportunity for us, and we need to play with a sense of urgency and a sense of aggression.
“It’ s probably going to be even more intense on Monday. So we’ re prepared for it, and it’ s going to be a fun night.”
Golden State set an NBA Finals record with 17 3-pointers on Friday night, outscoring the Cavs by 33 points from beyond the arc.
Curry’ s Splash Brother teammate, Klay Thompson, added 25 points. Curry and Thompson combined for 11 of the team’ s 3s in the game.
The Larry O’ Brien Trophy was flown cross-country to Oakland on Saturday to be handed out if the Warriors win.
“If you don’ t get up for that, there’ s something wrong with you,” Thompson said. “We can’ t wait to get to Oracle on Monday. I’ ve been fortunate to play there for five years and we really do have the best fans in the league. They probably won’ t have ever seemed as excited before as when we get to Monday.”
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has told his players that Monday night’ s clinching-potential game will not be an easy task.
“I’ ve already told our guys Game 5 will be the hardest game of the series,” Kerr said. “Every closeout game is difficult, but when you’ re at home, for a strange reason it’ s even more difficult. You’ ve got, you know, everybody in your ear, you’ ve got friends, you’ ve got family who want to come to the game and want to discuss everything.
“We have to understand that this series is not over. We came in and did what we wanted to do getting the split, but Game 5 will be extremely difficult.”
The Cavaliers will have to overcome huge odds to win the next three games. Only 10 teams in NBA history have rallied from 3-1 down in the playoffs and no team has won the championship after falling behind 3-1 in the Finals.
“We’ ve already got to take a flight home back anyways, so we might as well come home with a win and play on our home floor again,” James said of Monday’ s game. “Being a confident bunch, we feel like the chips have been stacked up against us all year anyway.”
James, playing in his sixth consecutive NBA Finals, said the Cavs must believe in doing something special despite being down 3-1.
“That’ s going to be my job, getting players to believe that this isn’ t over,” James told Cleveland.com. “Me personally, I’ m good, but I know what type of challenge we’ re up against and it’ s going to be up to me to prepare my teammates for that.”
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue offered similar sentiments about his team’ s chances to get a Game 6 in Cleveland.
“If you don’ t think we can win, don’ t get on the plane,” Lue told the Cavaliers. “I just think we have to come back anyway, so we might as well come back and play (Game 6).”