CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The NBA Finals matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors has become a compelling chess match between David Blatt and Steve Kerr, two guys who have loads of respect for one another.

Blatt's plan helped his team build a 2-1 series lead. He slowed the pace, shortened the game, limited Golden State's offensive possessions and attempted to follow Memphis' defensive blueprint, making things as challenging as possible on Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson while inviting other players to take shots.

But Kerr made his move on Thursday, pushing his queen forward and resuscitating his lifeless and frustrated team that had been stuck in a malaise -- showing the body language of the New York Knicks instead of a 67-win team from the West.

It could've backfired. It could've been viewed by his players as a desperate move. One way or the other, Kerr was about to change the series.

His starting lineup swap worked. The Warriors' dormant offense woke up Thursday and they evened the series, 2-2, following a 103-82 win against the depleted Cavaliers.

Here are five observations:

Bold move -- Following Golden State's Thursday morning shootaround, Kerr was asked about whether he was contemplating a lineup change. He said it wasn't necessary, but when the starting five for the Warriors took the court, Andrew Bogut, the team's defensive-minded center, was still sitting on the bench.

"We made the decision this morning, and so when I was asked today, I lied," Kerr admitted. "No, I did. I mean, I lied. I figure I have two press conferences the day of the game, so I'm asked a lot of strategic questions. If I tell the truth that's the equivalent of me knocking on David Blatt's door and saying, 'Hey this is what we're going to do.' I could evade the questions, which would start this Twitter phenomenon: Who is going to start for the Warriors? Or I could lie. So I lied."

Instead of Bogut, the Warriors went with Andre Iguodala, who came off the bench for the first 95 games this year.

"Inserting him into the starting lineup tonight, he's already being aggressive," Draymond Green said after scoring 17 points while starting at center. "He's already being really confident, but it brought pace to the game. (Timofey) Mozgov's just been pretty much sitting at the rim the entire series and now you have to chase somebody around a little bit more. (Andre) was knocking down shots. He was all over the floor, getting deflections, coming up with loose balls, coming up with rebounds and pushing the tempo. That really helped us out a lot. That's another one of those decisions that Coach Kerr made that most coaches probably wouldn't make, but he's had the heart to do it, and it worked out for us tonight."

The move looked as if was going to backfire as the Cavs raced out to a 7-0 advantage in the first 2:28. But then Kerr called a quick timeout, possibly the fastest in NBA Finals history, settled his team down and they fought back.

"They had to make an adjustment, obviously, because the game, all three of them, were going our way," Blatt said. "In the first few minutes we handled it. After that, less so."

While Iguodala flourished in the starting role, scoring a season-high 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting and giving the Warriors another playmaker and floor spacer, the rest of Golden State's roster benefited as well.

Green, the Warriors' heartbeat, didn't look petrified anymore on the Finals stage. He was able to use his diverse skill set to attack the Cavs' defense while playing with a renewed confidence.

"I've been killing myself mentally, and it's been killing me physically," he said. "My punch hasn't been there. That drive that's made me who I am in this league as a player, it wasn't there. I told you guys the other day, I said we've been soft and it's all my fault. I wanted to come out here and change that tonight and I knew in order to do that I had to get out of my own head. I had to be more aggressive and just fight."

He lived up to his big talk, even as he was giving up size and bulk to Mozgov, who scored a Finals-high 28 points.

"Mozgov's huge, man," Green said. "7-foot-3 and he probably outweighs me by 40 pounds, and he's talented. I think he's probably one of the most underrated players in the league. Even watching him in Denver, he never got the credit that he deserved."

That's the danger for the Cavs. As much as Mozgov was dominating the paint and gobbling rebounds, the Warriors attacked him at the other end. Because of the five offensive threats, the Russian rim protector Mozgov was no longer able to freelance.

"You're going to have a lot of guys on the perimeter," James said. "When your big is accustomed to guarding a big for three straight games and there is a change, now Timo has to make a change. He has to guard a smaller guy, which he's not been accustomed to ever. We still started pretty well. We were up 7-0, but Steph making the three, Iguodala hits the three, Harrison Barnes makes one, Draymond hits one and offensively they got it going. They got in a rhythm and you could start seeing it. While it's going on, you're kind of like, 'What do we do here? What do we do there?' And that's what the days in between games are for."

Barnes was another player aided in the switch. In the previous three games, he was clearly overmatched trying to contain James defensively. The energy on that was taking its toll and affecting his confidence, similar to what happened against the Rockets.

In Game 3 against Houston, the youngster was asked to defend James Harden. He did an admirable job, helping limit him to 17 points on 3-of-16 from the field. But Barnes' offense suffered as a result, going 0-for-9 from the floor. He bounced back then, averaging 19.0 points in the next two games, and did the same after an 0-for-8 night Tuesday.

Playing the undersized power forward position, and letting Iguodala defend James, Barnes scored 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting to go along with eight rebounds.

The Cavs' defensive plan allows Barnes, Green and Iguodala to fire from anywhere. But Thursday night the decision flopped as the trio combined for 53 of Golden State's 103 points.

"Whether they go big or small we're going to find ways to pick them apart," Tristan Thompson said after scoring 12 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. "We are going to make them pay. I'm going to hit the glass. I'm not going to stop. We're going to put pressure on their guards that are trying to box us out."

Fourth quarter struggles -- After a feisty defensive effort in the third quarter, holding the Warriors to 22 points and closing the gap to six heading into the fourth quarter, James needed a breather.

"He's a human being and I've got to give him a minute here or there," Blatt said. "If I don't, I'm really going to put him under more duress than he already is. When he is out everyone else has got to step up and give a little bit more."

That didn't happen Thursday. While James was resting for the first two minutes, the Warriors went on a 4-0 run, extending the lead to double figures with the Cavs' offense looking discombobulated.

During the rough stretch, Matthew Dellavedova was 0-for-2, J.R. Smith missed a jumper and James Jones fumbled the ball out of bounds for a turnover.

"I was hoping our team could buy me a few minutes," James said. "I ran through those 12 minutes in the third and I gassed out. I was hoping our team could buy me a couple minutes. We weren't able to do that and it's difficult. They made a huge run and we just couldn't regather after that."

The fourth quarter has been an issue for the Cavs all series and Thursday was no exception as they were outscored 27-12 in the final 12 minutes. Given the troubling trend, it's fair to wonder whether playing with a seven-man rotation is the cause.

"That's one thing we've been preaching the whole series is that we wanted to wear them down," Green said. "They're playing seven guys, sometimes eight, but the majority of the time they're playing seven guys. And LeBron is having to shoulder a lot of the load. You just want to continue to try to wear them down, wear them down, and we were able to do that tonight."

In the four games thus far, the Warriors have outscored the Cavs, 116-86, in the fourth quarter.

Golden State X-factor -- Before the series started, the Las Vegas odds of Iguodala winning NBA Finals MVP were listed at 125-1, according to Bovada. But if the Warriors win two more games and Iguodala continues his stellar play then he will likely be getting my vote.

"He looks great out there," Kerr said. "He's been our best player through four games. He guards LeBron pretty much every possession he's out there and his offense has been terrific."

Iguodala averaged a meager 7.8 points on 46 percent shooting during the regular season. However, in the Finals, he's currently at 14.8 points on 57 percent from the field, including nearly 41 percent from beyond the arc.

"He's one of the X-factors and he came to play," James said of Iguodala. "He shot the ball extremely well, hit four threes and was in attack. He got a couple dunks in transition early on which got him going and he was really good for them. They have so many different interchangeable players where he can kind of decide how he wants to go with his lineups in that nature and to start him tonight gave them that boost."

Iguodala's defense has been even better.

"I think he likes the challenge of his match-up and especially in this series and throughout the course of the season," Curry said. "No matter what he's asked to do, being ready to do it. We know his knack for just being impactful on the defensive end, whether it's playing one-on-one defense, getting steals, rebounds, blocking shots, he does it all. It showed tonight and a huge reason why we're 2-2 going home."

According to ESPN Stats and Info, James is 18-of-54 (33 percent) when guarded by Iguodala, the player who made First-Team All Defense in 2013-14.

"We've got a lot of great players in this league that can score the ball in bunches," Iguodala said of James. "You know, it's like 10 or 15 guys in this league. I've had a chance to guard all of them. I've been doing it for a long time. Make him work as hard as possible. Make him take tough shots."

James scored a Finals-low 20 points on 7-of-22 from the field, including a scoreless fourth quarter.

For the series, he's shooting 38 percent, his third-lowest percentage in a playoff series. He shot 35 percent against the Spurs in the 2007 NBA Finals and did the same the next year in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Boston.

Extra day -- If there's a glimmer of hope for the Cavs heading into Game 5 it's the schedule. The next game isn't until Sunday, meaning there is one extra day in between games, giving them an opportunity for much-needed rest and recovery.

"Tonight was the third game in five days, including the trip back from the West Coast and it seemed to have an impact on us," Blatt admitted.

James is averaging 45.8 minutes in the series, Iman Shumpert is getting 35.3 and Thompson is logging 42 minutes per night. Even Dellavedova has averaged 38.0 per game since being inserted into the starting lineup.

"I think it helps both teams," Thompson said. "They have the same schedule as us. Both teams are going to be able to rest up. It helps us too because we are short a couple of guys."

Delly flop -- It's tough to be overly critical of Dellavedova considering he spent the hours after Tuesday's win at the Cleveland Clinic, receiving treatment for severe cramps. But by the time the clock had struck midnight in Cleveland, for one night, Dellavedova turned back into a figurative pumpkin.

"He played his heart out, like he always does," Blatt said. "He'll tell you differently, but I don't think he was 100 percent. He gave us 100 percent of what he had. Listen, it's not easy for anybody to be great every day. He wasn't the only one that wasn't great, including myself, but he wanted to play and he wanted to win."

Delly scored 10 points on 3-of-14 from the field, including 2-of-9 from long range. He also committed three turnovers as the Warriors pressured him in ways they hadn't in the previous games, trying to exhaust him once more.

It also became abundantly clear early that Curry had enough of the Dellavedova love-fest.

"We want to make it as tough on him as possible," Curry said. "He obviously has a game plan for his defense on us to try to get into you and do whatever he can to try to make you uncomfortable so you're going to do it back to him and make him work on the offensive end. He obviously had some pivotal shots in game -- or a pivotal shot in Game 3 -- that helped them get the win. If you try to make him uncomfortable the whole game, you might wear him down and get into that battle a little more. I think it worked."

While Dellavedova said he was going to cut out the coffee, he admitted he chugged a cup Thursday night. He also came walking out of the trainer's room less than an hour before tip with a bottle of Gatorade in each hand and a half-eaten banana near his locker.

It's clear the cramps were still an issue as the training staff was working on his legs during his brief stints on the bench, but says he will be fine for Game 5.