Steph Curry scored 38 points to help Golden State Warriors beat Cleveland Cavaliers 108-97 and open a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.

The NBA's most valuable player hit seven three-point baskets to put the Warriors on the brink of winning successive titles.

No side has come back from 3-1 down to win the Finals and Golden State have home advantage for Monday's game five.

"He's the MVP for a reason," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr of Curry.

"He doesn't have the size and strength to dominate a game physically so he has to dominate with his skill.

"He trusts his shot and he just kept firing and they went in."

Curry, who averaged 16 points in the first three games of the series, scored 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Tempers fray

Cleveland went six minutes without scoring a basket in the final quarter and LeBron James tangled with Golden State's Draymond Green in the final three minutes of the game as frustrations boiled over.

"Draymond said something that I don't agree with," said James, who won the NBA Finals in 2012 and 2013 with Miami but has lost the last two, including last year's defeat by Golden State.

"I'm all cool with the competition, but some of the words that came out of his mouth were a little bit overboard.

"As a competitor, I love going against Draymond, and I'm all about going out there and leaving it out on the floor. But when it gets a little bit more than what it should be, that's what caused me to have words with him."

The Warriors won a record 73 regular season games, losing just nine.

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