BOSTON: LeBron James may have picked up a little something about smokescreens from the master when he nearly landed in Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s lap on his last visit to TD Garden.
On Tuesday night, James downplayed the significance of Wednesday’s Eastern Conference showdown against the Boston Celtics, saying he’d been to six consecutive NBA Finals and didn’t care about a regular-season game, no matter the stakes.
His performance totally defied that philosophy.
James poured in 15 points in the second quarter to help the Cavs break open the game and silence the rabid crowd as the Cavs flexed their muscles of East supremacy with a 114-91 victory.
With the triumph, the Cavs opened a one-game lead over the Celtics in the Eastern Conference with four regular-season games remaining.
James finished with 36 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and hit 14-of-22 shots from the field in 39 minutes. Perhaps showing his level of engagement was the fact that he went 7-of-7 from the free-throw line, where he was hitting 67 percent coming in.
All the Cavs starters scored in double figures, with Kyrie Irving scoring 19 points with five assists and Kevin Love contributing 15 points and 16 rebounds.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens conceded and pulled his starters, including the league’s fourth-quarter scoring leader, Isaiah Thomas, with 4:37 remaining. Thomas led the Celtics with 26 points, four rebounds and six assists, but made just 1-of-8 from 3-point range.
The two teams are fighting for the conference’s No. 1 seed and with it home-court advantage throughout the first three rounds of the playoffs. The Cavs took the season series 3-1 and thus hold the tiebreaker.
Had the Celtics won, the tiebreaker would come down to conference record. The seed may not be decided until the final games of the regular season on April 12. All of the Cavs’ and Celtics’ remaining games are against Eastern Conference foes.
But there was no doubt that the Cavs, seemingly dead after losing four out of five in March, three of them blowouts against the Nuggets, Wizards and Spurs, finally got serious. After all the talk about having no rhythm because of the rash of injuries that still continues, the Cavs sent the Celtics a message that they are still kings of the East in beating the Celts for the fifth time in the last seven games.
Of course, most of that message was delivered by King James.
With his thunderous dunks and blocked shots — none better than his two-handed smother of a Marcus Smart driving layup — James compiled the perfect highlight reel in the second quarter. He blew by first-year guard Jaylen Brown for a driving layup near the half’s end for an and-one that helped the Cavs to a 57-42 lead at the break.
In that period, James hit 7-of-9 field goals, his only free-throw attempt, pulled down three rebounds and added a steal and two blocked shots. Boos throughout the game, especially when James committed a foul, didn’t faze him.
The Cavs were without starting center Tristan Thompson, who saw his franchise record and the league’s longest active streak of 447 regular-season games played snapped. Thompson, who will also miss at least Friday’s home game against the Hawks, sprained his right thumb Tuesday night against the Orlando Magic.
Instead it was the Celtics who were lacking in interior defense, outscored 58-48 by the Cavs in the paint, including 38-22 in the first half.
The Celtics led 20-19 after the first quarter, but the Cavs went on a 22-4 run to start the second, with James scoring 12 points in that span. That helped the Cavs open a 41-24 lead with 5:57 left.
Al Horford ended that string with two free throws and the Celtics finally awakened. But Boston’s 7-0 run did little to halt the Cavs’ surge as they hit 64 percent from the field in the quarter. Led by 15 points from James, they opened up a 37-22 lead. Seven Cavs scored in the second quarter with J.R. Smith contributing five points and Love, Irving and Richard Jefferson four each.
The Cavs defied their M.O. this season, having gone 1-9 on the second night of a back-to-back on the road entering the night.
Wednesday also marked their fifth game in seven days after what James called a “gruesome” March that included 12-of-17 games on the road.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla.