NBA Playoffs 2017: Cavaliers vs. Celtics Game 5 live stream: Watch online
By Luke Norris
The Cleveland Cavaliers take a 3-1 lead back to Beantown with a chance to eliminate the Boston Celtics on Thursday night. Here’s a quick preview and the when, where and how you can watch Game 5.
The Boston Celtics are reeling and are just one loss away from going home for the summer.
With their star, Isaiah Thomas, out for the remainder of these NBA Playoffs (which may not be too much longer), the Celtics fought valiantly in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals but the Cleveland Cavaliers once again proved to be too much. Kyrie Irving led the way for the Cavs on Tuesday night with a playoff career-high 42 points (21 of them in the third quarter alone), going 15-for-22 from the floor (68.2 percent) and 4-for-7 (57.1 percent) from beyond the arc. Irving’s 42 was also the highest playoff point total for any teammate of LeBron James. So there’s that.
And speaking of LeBron James, he chipped in 34 points of his own in Game 4. And he was able to do that being in foul trouble for most of the game. LeBron was hit with his fourth foul with 6:46 to play in the first half, at which point the Celtics were actually up by 10. Boston actually stretched the lead to 16, 49-33, with James on the bench but Irving took over with 10 consecutive points for Cleveland and they closed the gap back to 10 at the half.
An 11-2 run by the Cavs to start the third closed the gap to three and Irving took over from there to finish the quarter and LeBron finished it off, scoring 15 points in the final frame to seal the 112-99 victory and they now head back to the TD Garden with a chance to close out the series.
Here are the projected starting lineups for Game 5.
Cleveland Cavaliers
C-Tristan Thompson
PF-Kevin Love
SF-LeBron James
SG-J.R. Smith
PG-Kyrie Irving
Boston Celtics
C-Al Horford
PF-Kelly Olynyk
SF-Jae Crowder
SG-Avery Bradley
PG-Marcus Smart