LeBron struggles, exchanges words with fan after loss

Celtics coach Brad Stevens was disappointed with his team’s defense on Irving, who was able to spread the floor while surrounded by shooters.

In a report by Sporting News, a recent remark by Celtics president Danny Ainge suggested that they can be using the No. 1 pick on Ball. “It wasn’t worth four”. It was worth one. “But like I said, we won 10 in a row, we lost a game and we’ve got a chance to come back and work on some things that we’re definitely going to correct”.

The series resumes Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena before returning to Boston on Thursday for a Game 5 that didn’t appear necessary until the Celtics stormed back from 21 down and won when Avery Bradley’s 3-pointer danced an Irish jig on the rim before falling with 0.01 seconds left.

In addition to G Marcus Smart, F Amir Johnson also rejoined the Boston lineup after being replaced by Gerald Green in Game 2.

The silver lining of Isaiah Thomas being sidelined for the rest of the playoffs is it forces Stevens’ to rely on the true strength of this team, their depth. We wish he could be here but we understand. “Everybody did their part”. The Cavaliers should look for LeBron James to start Game 4 like he did Game 2 by being aggressive and attacking the basket.

With Cleveland in jeopardy of dropping its second game in a row after James followed an 11-point Game 3 by picking up four first-half fouls, Irving put on a breathtaking one-man show in the third quarter.

“It seems like you only ask questions when we lose”, James said.

“You let a team grab momentum like that, you nearly know that last shot is going in”, James said.

Including Sunday, James now has 10 games in his career with 15 points or less in a postseason loss.

“And he did it against (Boston guard) Avery Bradley, a great on-ball defender”, said Lue. “We need Smart to play that way all the time”.

“We never counted ourselves out”.

Smart led the Celtics with 27 points on 8-for-14 shooting.

For Cleveland, the loss was a wake-up call on their march toward a possible third straight Finals and a seemingly inevitable rematch with Golden State.

That means that while the Cavs won’t have as much rest time as the Golden State Warriors, who swept the San Antonio Spurs out of the Western Conference finals on Monday, they can get a week of downtime to focus exclusively on Golden State – assuming they handle their business.

“So I am happy it happened now”. This is a whole different deal, however, facing the defending champions without their own best player in Thomas. “It happens. You’re not going to win all of the games. We got beat bad, but it’s all about how you rebound and we bounced back tonight”. “That’s my job as his teammate and as his friend is making sure he stays confident in what he does, and you know, just trying to get him out of it”.

James’s no-show was all the more baffling considering he had amassed 68 points in the first two games of the series. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it nine straight times in 1970. Despite Cleveland winning the second game of the series by 44 points, when it came to yesterday, the Celtics left Cleveland to points unanswered for. He took just three shots and didn’t attempt a free throw in the fourth quarter. “I don’t like people flopping”. “I told him I channeled my inner IT, and he kind of laughed a little bit”. Stevens said Thomas may consult with two additional specialists. Irving shot 9-for-10 in the quarter as the Cavs outscored Boston 40-23 to completely turn the game around.

“Some of the plays that we made, some of the plays that I made, I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ or ‘What could I have done better?’ But you figure out the next game and go forward“. Does that mean college too?

Cavaliers: James needs 62 points to pass Michael Jordan as the top scorer in postseason history.

Coach Tyronn Lue said they’ve gotten tighter this season. “That was a tight group”, he said.