2017 NBA Finals: The 13 craziest things that happened in Game 4

Game 4 of the NBA Finals was an absolute gold mine for anyone looking for true chaos on the league’s biggest stage. Here are some of the craziest moments.

The NBA Finals almost ended on Friday night in Game 4 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, and we all lucked out in the fact that the Cavaliers pulled out the win to force a Game 5.

While it’s always better to have more basketball, the best part about Game 4 was all of the madness that occurred on and off the court, and how we are guaranteed at least one more game in the series to add to the highlight reel.

This game had literally everything you’d want, and then some, to keep you interested in a blowout win. You had high scoring, records being broken, fights, and even some shenanigans from players and commentators not even partaking in the game.

To make it easy on you, here’s a list of the craziest moments from an incredible Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

For starters, we’re go all the way back to the first quarter. While plenty of small things happened during the quarter, the biggest storyline came in the Cavaliers’ absolute scoring dominance on the court to open the game. They dropped 49 points, an NBA Finals record for points in a quarter, and took a 16 point lead into the second quarter in a do-or-die game.

Speaking of Cleveland’s high scoring at home, and breaking records, the Cavaliers managed to break the NBA Finals 3-point record, with 24 shots made from beyond the arc throughout the game in their rout at home.

One of the more incredible 3s of all 24 came from the man, the myth, the legend: J.R. Smith. Smith channeled his inner Steph Curry, as he pulled up from DEEP with the shot clock expiring to hit a long ball from almost halfcourt. It was the equivalent of an early dagger and a real confidence boost for someone who probably didn’t need to be pulling up as many 3s as he does.

Outside of the deep ball, the Cavaliers also had some serious success from The King, as LeBron James was dominant with another triple-double in the series. No highlight was more impressive than his alley-oop to himself off the backboard, a thunderous slam that embarrassed the Warriors.

Away from the scoring, Game 4 stayed entertaining for how chippy it got. To fully understand it, you have to go back to the start, where Draymond Green got an early technical, or so it seemed, in the historic first quarter, after elbowing Iman Shumpert.

This got really interesting later on in the game, in the third quarter, where it looked like Green had gotten his second technical, and was ejected from the game. It created absolute madness on the court, and he ended up staying in the game after some questionable box score changes.

It was a moment that birthed a conspiracy theory. Press materials the league gave out for the game reportedly had Green officially getting the technical in the first quarter, and then somehow got it taken away and put onto Kerr after the second came down.

It got even sketchier when play-by-play feeds just didn’t list who actually got the first quarter technical.

All this Green madness and technical foul calling apparently caused everyone else to want to get involved. The most surprising, and one of the crazier moments of the game, came when LeBron and Kevin Durant got into some verbal sparring, and needed to be separated in the action-packed third quarter.

Then, we got even chippier, as a real MMA-type scrum happened on the court between Zaza Pachulia and Shumpert, with punches getting thrown on the floor in a heated battle.

And, in one more technical foul for good measure, even Dahntay Jones got into the action without having to play a single second in Game 4, as he got a technical on the Cavaliers bench.

In some funnier moments off the court, we start with Dwayne Wade just wearing whatever he wants court side to support his old teammate LeBron, and getting absolutely roasted on Twitter for it.

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/873362964027510784

Even earlier, we had more randomness with Jeff Van Gundy chiming in on some Kardashian drama early in the game, which should’ve been an easy enough sign to spot that told us this game would be nuts.

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In the end, the Cavaliers came out victorious at home, and forced at least a Game 5 for the series that we’re all now hoping finds its way to a Game 7.

The whole game was an absolute circus, and we can only hope that the series continues with the chaos on Monday night in California for Game 5.