Cavaliers come back against Celtics to take Game 4: 3 takeaways

The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a bad first half to take Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals from the Boston Celtics, 112-99.

So where do we begin with Game 4? Do you want to talk about LeBron James looking as if he’s played close to 50,000 minutes and not the freak’s freak we’ve come to know over these past 14 years? Or how about how he picked up four fouls in the first two quarters, something he’s never done in his career? What about Kevin Love’s stretch of playing like Minnesota Kevin Love — dominating on the boards and initiating offense, something we haven’t seen since he’s made it to the Land?

None of them. The beginning to Game 4 talk is Kyrie Irving. But we’ll get there. For now, let’s talk about the Cavaliers.

In the first half of Game 4, the Celtics seemed to carry their momentum over from Game 3. Celtics coach Brad Stevens replaced Amir Johnson with Kelly Olynyk in the starting lineup. The move worked. The Celtics scored 57 points in the first half, while holding the Cavaliers to 47, including 19 in the first quarter. They ran the Cavaliers off the 3-point-line, forcing a team who averaged 34 3s a game in the postseason to only 12 attempts in the first half and 22 for the game.

During that stretch, LeBron looked awful. Again he was tentative and sloppy. He had 10 points on 5-9 shooting in the first half, but zero free-throws and he looked like he completely lost his 3. Not to mention the four-fouls thing.

But, as we can forget with the dominance of LeBron, there are other All-Stars on the Cavaliers who can shoulder the load — which they did. And you just knew eventually LeBron was going to figure it out and get back to being LeBron — which he did.

Now, the Cavaliers find themselves up 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals, one win away from meeting with the Golden State Warriors for the third straight Finals. Here are three takeaways from Game 4.

Takeaways

Take a bow Kyrie: As a recent victim of a rolled-turned-sprained ankle, no one felt Irving’s pain more than I did on the play when, in the third quarter, on a drive through traffic on the fast break, Irving stepped on Terry Rozier’s foot and turned his left ankle. He pounded the floor in pain, and writhed on the floor. But, while he was on the floor talking to the trainers, Kyrie untied his left shoe, tied them tighter and then went to that zone where only players like Isiah Thomas can go. He then stepped to the free-throw line because even a rolled ankle can’t stop Irving from finishing at the rim.

Kyrie went off He finished 9-10 from the field and scored 21 points — including the Cavaliers’ final 14 of the third quarter. And, just to wrap up his insane quarter, he hit a 3 from about three steps beyond the line.

Irving finished with a postseason career-high 42 points on 15-of-22 shooting and let me just stop right there because my feeble mind can’t handle the majesty:

When in doubt, give the ball to the stars!: The second half of Game 4 was a textbook star-takeover. When things aren’t working, even in the pace-and-space era, it sometimes becomes necessary for a little bit of hero ball.

The Cavaliers shot almost 70 percent from the field in the second half. At one point, they were 21-26, and that came with missing their first two field goals of the half.

But here’s the thing, of the their 39 attempts in quarters three and four, LeBron and Irving took 31 of them. If you count Love’s four attempts, then the Cavs’ three best players took 35 of their 39 shots. And, of those remaining four attempts, J.R. Smith (2-2), Tristan Thompson (1-1) and Deron Williams (1-1) went perfect from the field. Basketball is weird sometimes, man.

Shoutout to the LeBron contingency lineup: One of my basketball fascinations is to watch lineups when LeBron is not on the floor. It’s not to knock teams, but to get a better understand of how LeBron affects the floor.

Next: Warriors sweep Spurs: 3 takeaways from Game 4

After LeBron sat with his four fouls, the Cavaliers trotted out Smith, Williams, Thompson, Love and Irving. The lineup never played together in the first half and only two minutes throughout the playoffs. It wasn’t a huge sample, but in the four minutes that lineup was together while the best player in the world sat, they had a net rating of plus-26.4. Not bad at all.