Those pesky Boston Celtics made life miserable for the Cavaliers on Tuesday night, but the fourth-quarter heroics of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving lifted their team to a 99-91 win to take an 2-0 first-round series lead.
Boston can’t match the Cleveland pound-for-pound in talent, but can match the Cavaliers’ intensity level and that’s how they stayed in the game throughout. But with a seven-point lead entering the final quarter, James and Irving went for 15 and nine points respectively to put away the determined visitors.
James registered a game-high 30 points to pair with nine boards and seven assists in 42 minutes and Irving continued to show that his regular-season success translates into postseason by providing 26 points, five rebounds and six assists.
James and Irving accounted for all of the Cavaliers’ fourth-quarter points. James passed “The Logo,” Jerry West (4,457), for No. 7 on the all-time playoff-scoring list. Coming into the game he needed 19 points to move ahead of the Hall-of-Famer.
Boston was active and aggressive from the opening tip. Even when the Cavaliers jumped out to a game-best 14-point advantage in the third, the Celtics never gave up, fighting back within two midway through the final period before James and Irving put the affair away.
It was not an efficient effort offensively for the Cavaliers. There were plenty of sloppy passes and staring down targets, which led to interceptions. James’ six turnovers were a third of the team’s total of 18 for the night. Kevin Love and Timofey Mozgov each had four. Amazingly, the Cavaliers had six turnovers in the fourth quarter yet still never gave up the lead.
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