Jayson Tatum tossed in a game-high 33 points and Jaylen Brown finished with 27 as the visiting Boston Celtics beat the undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers 109-102 on Monday in Game 4 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The victory gives the Celtics a 3-1 edge in the best-of-seven series. The teams will play Game 5 on Wednesday in Boston.
“I thought both teams played really hard,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I just thought you have to make plays down the stretch. So they made a ton of plays and put a ton of pressure on us, and we made a ton of plays. I thought both teams brought it.
“Everybody talks about clutch offense, I thought our clutch defense was good. We got stops when we needed to. … We executed our late-game defense. That’s just as important as the offense.”
Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland’s leading scorer, didn’t play because of a leg injury. Mitchell, who averaged 31.7 points per game in the first three contests of the series, strained his left calf in the final minutes of Boston’s 106-93 victory in Game 3 on Saturday.
The Cavaliers fell to 12-16 in games Mitchell has missed this season.
Boston had a 98-83 lead following a Brown basket with 7:56 to play, but Cleveland kept things interesting by scoring the next eight points. That burst was part of a 12-2 run that the Cavaliers used to pull within five points with 3:14 to play, and Cleveland trailed 102-97 until Brown extended Boston’s lead to eight points by making a 3-pointer with 1:09 remaining.
Jrue Holiday added 16 points for the top-seeded Celtics, who held Cleveland to 43.6 percent shooting from the field (41 of 94). Holiday made 4 of 8 3-point attempts.
Fourth-seeded Cleveland received 30 points and seven assists from Darius Garland plus 19 points apiece from Evan Mobley and Caris LeVert. Mobley also had a team-high nine rebounds.
“(Garland) knows he’s capable,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We’ve seen Darius carry this team before, so it’s not a surprise. He just knew what he had to do in order to give us a chance tonight, and I thought he did it.”
Boston made 21 of its 24 free-throw attempts. Cleveland was only 5 of 7 from the foul line.
The Celtics led 37-30 at the end of one quarter and 62-57 at halftime. Tatum, who finished the game with 11 rebounds, led all scorers with 23 points in the first half.
Cleveland took a 65-64 lead — its first edge since early in the opening quarter — on a Garland layup with 9:24 remaining in the third, but Boston answered with a 7-0 spurt to go up by six. The Celtics had an 88-78 advantage after three quarters.
“They gave us everything that they had,” Bickerstaff said. “They competed at a high level. They played the game properly. I’m proud of the guys, the way they went out and scrapped and competed and gave ourselves a chance.”
–Field Level Media
