Draymond Green or Kevin Durant are lying about the Game 7 phone call. But why?

Because of what happened Friday, the Warriors are back where they were last year. The Warriors wish both Friday and last year never happened. They’ll get a chance to make it go away on Monday with Game 5 of the NBA Finals (9 p.m. ET, ABC).

Paul Flannery’s excellent Sunday Shootaround digs into the Warriors’ preparation for this series and this situation, one where they couldn’t close out the Cavaliers with three chances at elimination a year ago. That preparation consisted almost entirely of signing Kevin Durant. He’s here to make all of the 3-1 jokes and Cleveland’s hope and any uncertainty go away. Has he done that? Do we believe this is over right now?

To me, the lack of focus of a number of key Warriors in Game 4 was disconcerting. But we’ll see. They are overpowered. At some point — in this game or one of the two additional elimination games — they’ll break through and Cleveland will be able to do nothing to stop them.

Though, for the millionth time, putting anything past LeBron is a tricky bet.

Let’s basketball.

So you may remember that we learned last week from Draymond Green that he called Kevin Durant from his car after losing Game 7 in the NBA Finals, and told Durant to join the Warriors. Durant is adamant that this didn’t happen. Some people have said this isn’t important. I disagree: By claiming he did make the call, Green is creating a mythology that puts him (not Steph Curry or his front office) in the center of the Durant acquisition. It also further mythologizes LeBron and the 2016 Cavaliers, that they shook Green so hard that he immediately decided the other stars on the Warriors and himself needed another superstar. That Durant adamantly refutes the call (and frankly seems annoyed by the discussion) suggests that perhaps he doesn’t want Green to have credit for Durant’s own decision. It’s all pretty interesting politicking.

Durant has been catching himself daydreaming about the moment he wins a championship.

Kevin Ding on why Kyrie Irving needs to become more to be LeBron’s best chance at beating the Warriors.

Chris Herring assesses whether what the Cavs are doing is sustainable.

The San Antonio Spurs have applied for a trademark on an interesting new secondary logo.

Sebastian Telfair was arrested in New York on guns charges.

Brilliant little clip from Ben Falk on LeBron’s genius.

Gordon Hayward’s wife posted a photo of their kid in a shamrock t-shirt that says “Go Green” to Instagram. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?