Star forward LeBron James emerged once again with his best inspirational score and contributed 44 points that helped the Cleveland Cavaliers win 111-102 against the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals series .
The victory allows the Cavaliers to tie the series that they play to the best of seven and the fifth match will be played next Wednesday at the TD Garden in Boston.
James, who scored 17 of 28 field goals, including a four-pointer with four attempts, and 9 of 13 from the personnel line, surpassed the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, on the list of top scorer in the final-stage competition. in the history of the NBA.
The Cavaliers star, who was perfect in the first quarter, reached all six games in the playoffs in which he has scored at least 40 points, which shows that without his inspiration they would be eliminated from the competition, and it becomes the first player to get it since he did in 2001 the former baseman Allen Iverson with the Philadelphia Sixers.
Now the great challenge for the Cavaliers is to try to get a win in Boston and for that, James admitted that he was prepared to face a hostile environment, the same one that the fans of his team offered to the Celtics in the Quicken Loans Arena. Cleveland.
James, who praised the work of the entire team, stressed that the key to the game was again in having the defensive ability not to allow the starting center of the Celtics, the Dominican Al Horford, could have prominence in the offensive game.
“The defensive work that we did in the last two games in the Horde mark was one of the keys that allowed us to get the wins and tie the series,” said James. “Now I am ready for the challenge of Boston although I know the hostile and difficult environment that we are going to encounter, but we will try to take advantage of our chances in order to achieve victory.”
Along with James, three other players of the Cavaliers scored double digits, including the guard Kyle Korver, who as a reserve reached the 14 points and put three decisive blocks.
While pivot Tristan Thompson emerged as the winning surprise factor that dominated the indoor game by getting a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds, including 10 defensive ones, and also put two plugs that helped in the defensive game of the Cavaliers.
Base George Hill also reached 13 points and power forward Kevin Love scored nine goals after scoring just three baskets of 12 field goals, but he grabbed 11 rebounds, delivered three assists and lost six balls.
Spanish baseman José Manuel Calderón this time did not receive any minute from Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue, and followed the game from the bench.
The Cavaliers try to become the twentieth team of 300 who manage to overcome a 0-2 disadvantage at the start of a series of seven games in the playoffs competition, where they have already achieved twice and will seek a third.
Although the Celtics played a good team basketball with the five holders who achieved double-digit numbers, including the guard Jaylen Brown, who contributed 25 points, six rebounds and two assists, in the end they could not with the James factor, which was the one It made the difference.
In fact, they lost just nine balls for 18 of the Cavaliers, including seven for James, but James’s inspiring shot was devastating.
The rookie forward Jayson Tatum reached 17 points as the second highest scorer, while the base Terry Rozier achieved a double-double of 16 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and recovered three balls.
Horford played 42 minutes in which he contributed 15 points after scoring 5 of 13 field goals, including a three-pointer with three attempts, and he was perfect 4-4 from the personnel line.
In addition to capturing seven rebounds – all defensive – gave an assist, recovered a ball, put a stopper and committed a personal foul.
While the power forward Marcus Morris reached the 10 goals, without it could not contain in the defensive game to the gale of the encestador of James.
Despite the loss, Celtics coach Brad Stevens recalled that the only concern that his team must now have is to win in the fifth game of the series that they will play in their field.
“They did the same as us in our field, where we will play the next game and I am convinced that we will be a different team,” said Stevens.
“We did not have the best scoring inspiration, but as a team we were superior to the Cavaliers, who once again had the best player in the world on their side,” he said.
The Celtics have a perfect 9-0 record so far in the playoffs in their TD Garden field.
Marisol Vázquez
