NEW YORK — The Chicago Cubs placed pitcher Wade Miley on the injured list Saturday because of a left shoulder strain, one day after the veteran was activated.

Miley threw 30 of 42 pitches for strikes in three scoreless innings Friday night at Yankee Stadium. He was pulled after throwing a few warm-up pitches to start the fourth. Miley said he was injured throwing a pitch to Josh Donaldson in the second inning of a 2-1, 13-inning loss to New York.

“He’s dealing with some stuff,” Chicago manager David Ross said before Saturday’s game against the Yankees. “I think he’s pretty optimistic. We’ll see, give it some time to calm down. I think he’s a little sore today.”

The 35-year-old Miley exited early Friday after not pitching since May 22 because of a strained left shoulder. He also missed the first month because of left elbow inflammation before making his season debut May 10.

The Cubs claimed Miley off waivers from the Reds on Nov. 5 and picked up his $10 million contract option two days later. He is 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA in four starts this season.

To replace Miley on the roster, reliever Michael Rucker was recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Rucker was optioned to Iowa on Friday to make room for Miley and is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA in 11 appearances.

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“I’m really trying to think of ways for us to take the trauma that’s linked to our food and uplift it in ways that makes us feel good and connected to who we are and our cultural identity,” says Jordan Wimby, aka the Melanin Martha, the subject of my column this week.

You can see (and eat) that plan in action next Monday, June 20, when Wimby takes over the kitchen at the Kedzie Inn in Irving park for Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up. That’s also the day after Juneteenth, and Wimby is celebrating Black foodways with a menu of “Ancestral Favorites Reimagined,” featuring, as promised, her favorite vegetable: okra—buttermilk-battered and deep fried with a rich, creamy sauce. She’s also bringing the sweet potato-fennel minced beef pies, infused with ginger, garlic, and orange peel that I watched her conjure on Instagram this week; along with catfish étouffée and Carolina Gold rice (with a cauliflower sub for vegetarians).

I was slightly off on my prediction for dessert—it’s bourbon sweet potato crème brûlée—but hibiscus makes its way into her strawberry-mint ice pops, and also the gin-radler cocktail special Jon Pokorny will be mixing up at the bar.

Preorders for this taste of liberation are on sale now, and walk-ins are welcome starting at 5 PM.

Meantime, behold a full summer schedule of Monday Night Foodball below:

6/27: Chinese-Viet-inspired barbecue from Charles Wong of Umamicue

7/4: Off for Independence Day

7/11: Dawn Lewis of D’s Roti & Trini Cuisine

7/18: Mazesoba from Mike “Ramen Lord” Satinover

7/25: Asian stoner snacks from SuperHai

8/1: Keralan food from Thommy Padanilam of Thommy’s Toddy Shop

8/8: Osker Singer aka Whole Grain Hoe (formerly Rye Humor Baking)

8/15: Dylan Maysick of Diaspora Dinners

8/22: Vargo Brother Ferments

8/29: the triumphant return of Funeral Potatoes

Kedzie Inn
4100 N. Kedzie
(773) 293-6368
kedzieinn.com

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“I’m really trying to think of ways for us to take the trauma that’s linked to our food and uplift it in ways that makes us feel good and connected to who we are and our cultural identity,” says Jordan Wimby, aka the Melanin Martha, the subject of my column this week.

You can see (and eat) that plan in action next Monday, June 20, when Wimby takes over the kitchen at the Kedzie Inn in Irving park for Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up. That’s also the day after Juneteenth, and Wimby is celebrating Black foodways with a menu of “Ancestral Favorites Reimagined,” featuring, as promised, her favorite vegetable: okra—buttermilk-battered and deep fried with a rich, creamy sauce. She’s also bringing the sweet potato-fennel minced beef pies, infused with ginger, garlic, and orange peel that I watched her conjure on Instagram this week; along with catfish étouffée and Carolina Gold rice (with a cauliflower sub for vegetarians).

I was slightly off on my prediction for dessert—it’s bourbon sweet potato crème brûlée—but hibiscus makes its way into her strawberry-mint ice pops, and also the gin-radler cocktail special Jon Pokorny will be mixing up at the bar.

Preorders for this taste of liberation are on sale now, and walk-ins are welcome starting at 5 PM.

Meantime, behold a full summer schedule of Monday Night Foodball below:

6/27: Chinese-Viet-inspired barbecue from Charles Wong of Umamicue

7/4: Off for Independence Day

7/11: Dawn Lewis of D’s Roti & Trini Cuisine

7/18: Mazesoba from Mike “Ramen Lord” Satinover

7/25: Asian stoner snacks from SuperHai

8/1: Keralan food from Thommy Padanilam of Thommy’s Toddy Shop

8/8: Osker Singer aka Whole Grain Hoe (formerly Rye Humor Baking)

8/15: Dylan Maysick of Diaspora Dinners

8/22: Vargo Brother Ferments

8/29: the triumphant return of Funeral Potatoes

Kedzie Inn
4100 N. Kedzie
(773) 293-6368
kedzieinn.com

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BOSTON — Steve Kerr has made a lot of high-pressure, large-stakes decisions during his NBA career. Like that afternoon in 1995 when he got fed up with Michael Jordan in a Chicago Bulls practice and made the choice to throw a forearm and ended up with a black eye.

The Golden State Warriors‘ coach had another big one with seven minutes left Friday in a vital Game 4 of the NBA Finals when he decided to pull Draymond Green out of the game. The Warriors were down five points to the Boston Celtics and in danger. It was as simple as Green not playing well and the player he went to, Kevon Looney, was.

The Warriors went on an 11-3 run over the next five minutes with Green out and they took the lead for good. Then Kerr decided to play Green on defense only as much as possible in the final minutes, once even calling a timeout to take him out of the game. In the more limited role, Green made several impactful plays and had one of his best stretches in the series as the Warriors closed out the 107-97 victory to even the series at 2-2.

On their face, these Finals look like Stephen Curry’s greatness against the Celtics’ youthful exuberance that will perhaps manifest itself in volume 3-point shooting and modern pick-and-roll coverage. But as this turns into a three-game series, the title might hinge on an old-school scenario: the big men.

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It will come down to how Kerr manages what could end up being a prickly situation with Green on one side. And the health of Celtics defensive ace Robert Williams III, who looked like he aggravated a knee injury late in Game 4 in what has the potential to be a turning point in the series.

Both Kerr and Celtics coach Ime Udoka probably know these realities and their willingness to punt them until later on told the story after the game.

“I didn’t see anything with Rob and haven’t heard anything,” Udoka said.

This felt like a canard considering Williams came up lame with four minutes to play and signaled to the bench to ask out of the game. A few moments later he was pulled and never returned. The Warriors outscored the Celtics by seven points in those final three-plus minutes.

The Boston Celtics are tied with the Golden State Warriors 2-2 in the Finals, with Game 5 Monday (9 p.m. ET, ABC) in San Francisco.

GAME 4: GS 107, BOS 97
o Curry’s epic game changes series

GAME 3: BOS 116, GS 100
o Celtics use size, quickness to regain control
o Curry in unfamiliar underdog territory

GAME 2: GS 107, BOS 88
o Steph was a problem for the Celtics
o C’s lament more third-quarter woes

GAME 1: BOS 120, GS 108
o Boston’s win one year in the making
o Celtics beat Dubs at their game

o Series keys | Experts’ picks | Odds

Williams has the best defensive metrics in this series by far. When he was on the floor in Game 4, the Celtics outscored the Warriors by six points. When he was off, they were outscored by 16. Udoka might have been aware he wasn’t available down the stretch.

Williams has 12 blocks and five steals in the series. He had a playoff career-high 12 rebounds Friday. When he has been on the floor, the Celtics are +20 in the four games. In Games 3 and 4, he looked as spry as he has in weeks. He was covering immense ground, swatting shots and generally causing the Warriors to cower.

Recovering from knee surgery late in the season and a bone bruise in his left knee, Williams’ life has been all about playing and treatment on the knee for weeks. He gets several deep-tissue massages in his calf and the front of the knee daily. Bags of ice by the ton, electric muscle stimulation treatment and a process called blood-flow restriction, which involves putting a ring around the knee that squeezes to promote healing.

It has been working: After missing seven of the Celtics’ first 14 playoff games, he has played in eight in a row. But it’s now a matter of how severe the aggravation might be, and it’s also unclear how he will feel Monday in San Francisco for Game 5 (9 p.m. ET on ABC) in what could end up being a massive variable.

The Boston Celtics are tied with the Golden State Warriors 2-2 with the NBA championship on the line. You can catch the action on ABC and in the ESPN App.

Game 5: Monday, 9 p.m. ET, at GS
Game 6: Thursday, 9 p.m. ET, at BOS
Game 7: June 19, 8 p.m. ET, at GS*

*If necessary

“It’s up and down,” Williams said about his knee before Game 4. “Adrenaline energy kind of carries me.”

Then there’s the brewing scenario with Green, who has been so limited on offense in these Finals that Williams will often guard him because it allows freelancing elsewhere. But around his benching, he was truly effective in the fourth quarter, posting five of his nine rebounds and three of his eight assists in limited minutes.

Kerr made it sound like it was the plan all along to reduce Green’s minutes; the power forward played a series-low 33. And Kerr did take Looney out of the starting lineup in part so he could set a rotation that would allow Looney to play more in the fourth quarter.

Kerr still had to make the call in the moment, and it was one of the best moves he has made in the series. It might even rise to the level of “season-saving.” Looney had played six minutes total in the fourth quarter in the first three games of the series; he played nearly eight minutes in the vital fourth quarter of Game 4.

“Like most coaches, if you’ve got a group that’s going well, you just stay with it,” Kerr demurred when discussing the choice. “I didn’t play [Looney] enough in Game 3. That was my mistake. It was important to get him out there, and he had a huge impact on the game.”

Looney is a whopping +36 in the series after going +21 in Game 4. He’s been the team’s best rebounder and rim defender while limiting mistakes. He’s gotten a bunch of baskets around the rim, shooting 13-of-18 as he gets putbacks and dump-offs when attention goes elsewhere. It stands in stark contrast to Green’s 6-of-26 shooting.

“I’m definitely never thrilled coming out of the game with seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter in a must-win game,” Green said. “But, at the end of the day, if that’s what coach decides, then you roll with it. You know, I had to keep my head in the game.”

If the same situation arises in Games 5 or 6 or maybe even 7, Kerr might have to do it again. Looney has been the Warriors’ best big man. Though Green and Looney often play together, for Golden State to have its best offense out in crunch time Kerr can only play one.

Though they’ve had their battles over the years, Kerr has stood by Green even as his temper and withering offense in recent years has made it harder. That’s getting tested in a major way right now and it’s only going to get more intense.

For both sides with these big men, it’s all a big part of this Finals.

“I don’t ever want our players to be happy if I take them out,” Kerr said. “Draymond is incredibly competitive. Whatever it takes in Game 5, that’s what we’ll do.”

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The NBA playoffs are full of moments that can swing a series: a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, a late and-1 bucket or an alley-oop dunk in front of the home crowd.

Or in some cases, it might be the blow of the referee’s whistle, as a late-game block/charge call or an overturned bucket could help make the difference between who advances and who goes home.

With the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics headed for a best-of-three series in the NBA Finals, what will officials be watching the closest? Are any points of emphasis expanded when the games matter most?

ESPN NBA insider Tim MacMahon caught up with Monty McCutchen, NBA senior vice president for referee development and training, for the X’s and O’s of challenges, whether the last-two-minute reports should be expanded, how Finals officials are chosen and the protocols of removing points off the board after a review.

What is reviewable during an NBA game? Are any of those parameters expanded during the playoffs?

“Nothing is expanded. Our rules in the preseason in October are our rules in June for conference finals and [the NBA] Finals. That’s a really important distinction to be made.

“The reviewable matters are a little more difficult [to explain], because we have 16 triggers and each of them have their own set of reviewable matters. We’re looking to maybe unify that. For example, you can always look to see if a shot-clock violation took place or not. You can see whether someone [was out of bounds when they] jumped before the shot. You can see if there was an eight-second violation.

“On coaches’ challenges, reviewable matters are out of bounds, goaltending and a foul called against your team. Let’s say that you think the opponent’s best player was the fouler, but they called it on their seventh man. You can’t challenge that thinking that it’s on their best player. It has to be called on your team.”

Can referees overturn another call they notice while reviewing something else?

“There’s a difference in whether it’s a challenge or whether it’s a review. If it’s a coach’s challenge, let’s say the official thinks it’s an offensive foul and we call it a defensive foul. We most certainly can get that play called correctly if it is clear and conclusive, but it must be tied proximate to the play. You can’t go over and see a play out of pick-and-roll and see some other play that you didn’t call — a guy pushed off in the corner — and get that play called correctly. It’s only what’s tied to the play that you’re challenging.”

Will a late call impact any of the remaining NBA Finals games between the Celtics and Warriors? Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

How have the review rules evolved in recent years? What is the process for reviewing a call?

“Any time we have a high-profile play, the competition committee takes it under consideration. When instant replay was put in, it was put in for last-second shots. It was one paragraph in our rulebook. It’s 4 1/2 pages now.

“Playoffs drive a lot of this, because it’s the most important time of the year. We noticed one season and postseason that we were incorrectly calling a lot of off-ball fouls as someone was shooting. So we added that one to help determine where the first illegal contact was, because often when you process the play, you see it’s illegal and it takes time to blow the whistle. In the meantime, the shot’s in the air, but the first illegal contact occurred prior to that.

“So play often dictates change, if we see the style of play starting to change to some degree. Clear-path fouls became very difficult to adjudicate in real time; therefore, it was added because it’s such an important penalty with two free throws and the ball. All of these things take place through an organic sense.”

What is the official protocol for retroactively removing points off the board, such as Max Strus‘ made shot during Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics? At what point does it become nonreviewable?

“We understand that there is a point of no return. This rule has been in place in excess of 15 or 20 years, but the way it used to work is [a referee] would do the little twirly-bird signal and they’d go look at the next timeout to see whether that was a 2-pointer or a 3. So if one happened at, let’s say, 11:52 of the third quarter, you might not get to that until 5:50, 6:50, somewhere under that seven-minute mark during that first mandatory timeout.

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“Several years ago, in an effort to speed up play so that we took less time, we instituted the fact that we were going to review all 2s and 3s, initiated by the replay center, not by referees. Therefore, you don’t see referees give the twirly-bird signal now, because every single 2 or 3 is triggered.

“When one happens in Game 7, it garnered more attention, but there were 15 other incidents where points were taken off the board this year from a team — including Miami, ironically — throughout the season. Now, there were probably hundreds of close calls to being out of bounds where they would have reviewed that in-house. Let’s say Strus, in that case, would have been inbounds by two or three inches. It still would have been reviewed.

“One of the key things that I’d like our fan base to know is that the process is much faster now. In my career, we were waiting on that mandatory timeout to go review it ourselves as referees on the floor. Now, instead of that mandatory timeout that occurred much later, we were able to communicate it back to the table and it was corrected at, I think, 8:28, saving several minutes off the old policy.

“We can’t announce those in live action. As the ball’s being dribbled up, no one wants an announcement that interrupts flow through disappointment. If you hear that while you’re going up for a layup and you’ve just lost three points, that can really impact play. Secondarily, if we did it in live action and just took points off without announcing it, you could well imagine the confusion that would take for the team to look up and think that they had three points without understanding why they don’t have three points and then arguing about it during live action. So we think the first dead ball is the first opportune time.

“Now, in Strus’ instance, there were two dead balls prior to when it was announced. Both were fairly quick, though. One was an out-of-bounds in the backcourt where we give them the ball as soon as they’re ready, and the other had some element of small confusion because there was a defensive three [seconds] involved, so it didn’t get announced. Those were about 30 seconds before it got announced, so it wasn’t in our view a material difference to the outcome of the game, those 30 seconds.”

Are points of emphasis sent to referees during the playoffs, and the Finals in particular?

Note: Teams are sent points-of-emphasis videos every month throughout the regular season and playoffs.

“The driving force of that is to allow teams to coach to it. If we do a good job of consistent work, from October to November to December, January, February, it’s really incumbent on my group to do the same things in April, May and June, because the teams have spent a lot of time coaching to that. We don’t change things up in the playoffs.

The Boston Celtics are tied with the Golden State Warriors 2-2 with the NBA championship on the line. You can catch the action on ABC and in the ESPN App.

Game 5: Monday, 9 p.m. ET, at GS
Game 6: Thursday, 9 p.m. ET, at BOS
Game 7: June 19, 8 p.m. ET, at GS*

*If necessary

“One of the things that I do in the playoffs is I remind our group that, hey, we were really good with non-basketball moves this year, right? Don’t let up. Because that’s one of the criticisms that you always hear: ‘Oh, they won’t call it in the playoffs.’ I think we’ve proven [that criticism wrong] over the past several years.

“Now, don’t interpret my enthusiasm for consistency with perfection. We miss calls. When we miss calls it’s really easy for everyone to say, ‘Oh, see, they’re not calling it in the playoffs,’ when in fact we are. “It’s really important that we don’t feed into the idea that, ‘Oh, that’s a playoff foul.’ … I don’t drive that.”

How are referees evaluated? What criteria determine which referees call the Finals?

“The process is the same to determine who referees playoff games in the first round as it is to referee the Finals. We run through the process every round.

“Referee operations consists of myself, Joey Crawford, E.F. Rush, Mark Wunderlich, Bennett Salvatore and Bernie Fryer. There are six of us that make up referee operations as the quote-unquote “experts.” I use that term without any sense of hubris, but we have dedicated our lives to this and we do care about it deeply, and we really have worked at knowing the nuances of our craft.

“We make up a percentage, the teams make up a percentage and [so does] the analytical department. That is independent reviewers. That is not ex-referees, it’s trained reviewers. They have every call and non-call graded for a referee all season long — thousands and thousands of decisions per referee.

“We put it into the matrix and it spits out 36 names. Then we go to 28 for the second round, 20 for the third and 12 [for the Finals].

REFNBA Finals APP.Tony Brothers11thJames Capers11thMarc Davis11thKane Fitzgerald4thScott Foster15thJohn Goble6thDavid Guthrie5thCourtney Kirkland2ndEric Lewis4thJosh Tiven3rdJames Williams2ndZach Zarba9th

“If someone is .0008 separated in our matrix, we talk it out as a group. That means the analytical team and my team — obviously the [NBA] teams aren’t involved in that. But [president of league operations] Byron Spruell, Joe Dumars in his role [as executive vice president, head of basketball operations], which used to be Kiki VanDeWeghe, when [referees] are minutely close together via the matrix, we hash out what intangibles each person brings.

“You can’t just be out there missing a ton of calls and expect your strength or courage as an intangible to override that. Then we as experts know where people should be standing, know whether they show up in the fourth quarter or overtime, which is an important factor in the playoffs because the decisions are so difficult to make and the pressure is so high. Some people handle pressure a little better than others, and we have to recognize that. We have to grow those that don’t handle it, and they don’t get the best opportunities until they do handle it.

“It’s very analogous to what coaches do with their younger players, developing them until they can become part of a rotation.”

The last-two-minute (L2M) reports become huge news the mornings after NBA Finals games. Has there been discussion to expand that time frame, and what has the overall assessment been of the success of those reports?

“We’ve been very successful being transparent. We’re very honest about those. We hash those out every single day. Every day, we go in and minutely look at very slow replays and everything else. We take it very seriously.

“Right now, it takes 15 reviewers eight hours to nine hours to do one full game that we give to the teams. There’s no way we can get that out the next morning by 9 a.m. if we expand that on a 13-game night and 12 of them go to a L2M report that would turn into a whole-game report or a fourth-quarter report. It’s truly a logistical issue against training proper people to give out meaningful reports.

“We think the two minutes is the one that signifies. It mirrors our rulebook well with all the rule changes that take place within two minutes. We had to choose a line, and that was the line. Expanding the reports is discussed, but right now, it’s not feasible to go longer and get it out in a timely manner.”

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The Chicago Cubs have seen a lot of historically good players come through and call Wrigley Field home. Anthony Rizzo is one of those guys as he was the face of the franchise for a very long time. Bringing him in all those years ago was one of the smartest moves in the history of the organization.

Unlike all of the other great faces that came before him, Rizzo actually helped what was a helpless team win the whole thing. Rizzo and the Cubs won the World Series together in 2016 so you know that he is forever connected to the squad.

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BOSTON — Stephen Curry isn’t one to show tons of emotion throughout the course of a game. But in the Golden State Warriors‘ 107-97 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Curry wore his heart on his sleeve all night.

Late in the first quarter, after knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers, Curry ran down to the opposite end of the court and began yelling at the Boston fans — something he does maybe once or twice down the stretch after a big shot, but rarely from the opening moments.

“Felt like we just had to let everybody know that we were here tonight,” Curry said. “Whether that’s their crowd, their team, our team, whoever wants to see that energy and that fire, we feed off of that.

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Curry finished with 43 points on 14-of-26 shooting, including seven 3-pointers, and added 10 rebounds and four assists. He became just the fifth guard in NBA history to have at least 40 points and 10 rebounds in a Finals game.

“Incredible,” Draymond Green said. “Put us on his back. Willed us to win. Much-needed win. A game we had to have. Came out and showed why he’s one of the best players to ever play this game, you know, and why, you know, this organization has been able to ride him to so much success. It’s absolutely incredible.”

Green said he knew Curry wouldn’t let the Warriors lose. Kerr called his game “stunning.” Klay Thompson ranked it as Curry’s No. 1 Finals performance.

Curry doesn’t rank his performances, but he said he understood the importance of what he did Friday night, especially given what was at stake. The outcome of Friday’s game would have either put the Warriors down 3-1 or tied the series at two games each.

Curry ensured it was the latter.

“It means everything knowing the sense of urgency we had to have tonight to win on the road and keep some life in the series, get home-court advantage back and try to create some momentum our way,” Curry said.

Curry scored 33 points through the first three quarters, a trend that had been consistent through the first three games of the series. But his problem area had been the fourth quarter, where he was averaging just three points on 30% field goal shooting. He had scored just six points in Games 1, 2 and 3 combined.

On Friday, he scored 10 in the final frame. He had 24 points in the second half overall, tying the most in his career in the second half of a Finals game.

The fourth quarter is when the Warriors, as a team, put the clamps on the Celtics. Golden State outscored Boston 15-0 in crunch time and became the first team in the past 50 seasons to win a Finals game by at least 10 points in regulation after trailing at some point in the last five minutes of the game.

“We were helping each other out, playing together, playing aggressively on the defensive side, and most importantly just closing out,” Wiggins said. “You know, not grabbing rebounds. No offensive rebounds. Didn’t get second-chance points. So that was big.”

With just over a minute left in the game and the Warriors up three, Green grabbed the offensive rebound off a missed Thompson 3-pointer. He passed it back out to Curry but quickly got the ball back after the Celtics threw a double-team at Curry. Green then dished the ball to Looney, who finished with a dunk over Al Horford.

Kerr called it the biggest bucket of the night. But it was Curry who carried them to the point when that shot could become the dagger.

“The things he does we kind of take for granted from time to time,” Thompson said. “But to go out there and put us on his back, I mean, we got to help him out on Monday.”

Curry got some help on Friday from Thompson, who scored 18 points and knocked down four 3-pointers; Andrew Wiggins, who had 17 points and 16 rebounds; and Jordan Poole, who added 14 points. Kevon Looney, who came off of the bench for the first time this series, had 11 rebounds and finished with a plus-21 net rating.

But Curry outscored the rest of the Warriors’ starters 43-39. At 34, he is the oldest player to do that in a Finals game since Michael Jordan, 35, in Game 6 against the Jazz in 1998.

Green struggled again, not putting any substantial fingerprints on the game until his rebound late in the fourth. Kerr even opted to pull Green from the game on offensive possessions through the final five minutes of the game.

As Thompson said, the Warriors know they have to help Curry out. But they aren’t saying they need to do it by sharing the brunt of the scoring responsibilities.

“When a guy is on a roll like that, you just get out of his way,” Thompson said.

Green added: “You just try to do what you can to help free him up to get him to his spots or open up some space for him to create and get to his spots. For us, we’ve just got to continue to fill in where we may. You’ve got a shot, take it. … I think if everybody is forceful on the offensive end, and that means with cuts, that means crisp with your passes, then you allow him to be in the position to do what he does.”

Green said he knew Curry was going to play with an extra level of fire in Game 4, saying he could tell just by watching Curry’s demeanor in the days following their lackluster loss two days prior.

Curry said he entered Game 4 knowing he wanted to take over. He knew how quickly the momentum in the Finals could shift, and if he could will his team to a victory in Boston, all of it would be on their side.

“He was going to come out with that type of fire,” Green said. “And he did, and we were all able to follow it.”

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BOSTON — Stephen Curry isn’t one to show tons of emotion throughout the course of a game. But in the Golden State Warriors‘ 107-97 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Curry wore his heart on his sleeve all night.

Late in the first quarter, after knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers, Curry ran down to the opposite end of the court and began yelling at the Boston fans — something he does maybe once or twice down the stretch after a big shot, but rarely from the opening moments.

“Felt like we just had to let everybody know that we were here tonight,” Curry said. “Whether that’s their crowd, their team, our team, whoever wants to see that energy and that fire, we feed off of that.

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Curry finished with 43 points on 14-of-26 shooting, including seven 3-pointers, and added 10 rebounds and four assists. He became just the fifth guard in NBA history to have at least 40 points and 10 rebounds in a Finals game.

“Incredible,” Draymond Green said. “Put us on his back. Willed us to win. Much-needed win. A game we had to have. Came out and showed why he’s one of the best players to ever play this game, you know, and why, you know, this organization has been able to ride him to so much success. It’s absolutely incredible.”

Green said he knew Curry wouldn’t let the Warriors lose. Kerr called his game “stunning.” Klay Thompson ranked it as Curry’s No. 1 Finals performance.

Curry doesn’t rank his performances, but he said he understood the importance of what he did Friday night, especially given what was at stake. The outcome of Friday’s game would have either put the Warriors down 3-1 or tied the series at two games each.

Curry ensured it was the latter.

“It means everything knowing the sense of urgency we had to have tonight to win on the road and keep some life in the series, get home-court advantage back and try to create some momentum our way,” Curry said.

Curry scored 33 points through the first three quarters, a trend that had been consistent through the first three games of the series. But his problem area had been the fourth quarter, where he was averaging just three points on 30% field goal shooting. He had scored just six points in Games 1, 2 and 3 combined.

On Friday, he scored 10 in the final frame. He had 24 points in the second half overall, tying the most in his career in the second half of a Finals game.

The fourth quarter is when the Warriors, as a team, put the clamps on the Celtics. Golden State outscored Boston 15-0 in crunch time and became the first team in the past 50 seasons to win a Finals game by at least 10 points in regulation after trailing at some point in the last five minutes of the game.

“We were helping each other out, playing together, playing aggressively on the defensive side, and most importantly just closing out,” Wiggins said. “You know, not grabbing rebounds. No offensive rebounds. Didn’t get second-chance points. So that was big.”

With just over a minute left in the game and the Warriors up three, Green grabbed the offensive rebound off a missed Thompson 3-pointer. He passed it back out to Curry but quickly got the ball back after the Celtics threw a double-team at Curry. Green then dished the ball to Looney, who finished with a dunk over Al Horford.

Kerr called it the biggest bucket of the night. But it was Curry who carried them to the point when that shot could become the dagger.

“The things he does we kind of take for granted from time to time,” Thompson said. “But to go out there and put us on his back, I mean, we got to help him out on Monday.”

Curry got some help on Friday from Thompson, who scored 18 points and knocked down four 3-pointers; Andrew Wiggins, who had 17 points and 16 rebounds; and Jordan Poole, who added 14 points. Kevon Looney, who came off of the bench for the first time this series, had 11 rebounds and finished with a plus-21 net rating.

But Curry outscored the rest of the Warriors’ starters 43-39. At 34, he is the oldest player to do that in a Finals game since Michael Jordan, 35, in Game 6 against the Jazz in 1998.

Green struggled again, not putting any substantial fingerprints on the game until his rebound late in the fourth. Kerr even opted to pull Green from the game on offensive possessions through the final five minutes of the game.

As Thompson said, the Warriors know they have to help Curry out. But they aren’t saying they need to do it by sharing the brunt of the scoring responsibilities.

“When a guy is on a roll like that, you just get out of his way,” Thompson said.

Green added: “You just try to do what you can to help free him up to get him to his spots or open up some space for him to create and get to his spots. For us, we’ve just got to continue to fill in where we may. You’ve got a shot, take it. … I think if everybody is forceful on the offensive end, and that means with cuts, that means crisp with your passes, then you allow him to be in the position to do what he does.”

Green said he knew Curry was going to play with an extra level of fire in Game 4, saying he could tell just by watching Curry’s demeanor in the days following their lackluster loss two days prior.

Curry said he entered Game 4 knowing he wanted to take over. He knew how quickly the momentum in the Finals could shift, and if he could will his team to a victory in Boston, all of it would be on their side.

“He was going to come out with that type of fire,” Green said. “And he did, and we were all able to follow it.”

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