CLEVELAND: The Cavaliers needed a scorer or two to step up Tuesday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals to overcome a double-digit deficit against the Boston Celtics.
Enter Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, who drove past and shot over the men dressed in green to lead the Cavaliers to a 112-99 victory at Quicken Loans Arena.
Irving totaled 42 points and four assists, and James added 34 points and six assists to give the Cavs a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series that shifts to Boston for Game 5 on Thursday.
The Cavs and Celtics played role reversal in Game 4 before a sellout crowd of 20,562 that included actor Matthew McConaughey, UFC fighter Stipe Miocic and rapper Machine Gun Kelly.
On this night, the Cavs overcame a double-digit deficit to win much like the Celtics rallied from a sizable deficit to win Game 3 on Sunday.
Irving scored 21 points in the third quarter to help the Cavs erase a 57-47 halftime deficit and hold an 87-80 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Irving made 9-of-10 shots from the field in the quarter and a free throw.
James scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, making 7-of-11 shots from the field.
Irving finished 15-of-22 from the field and James was 15-of-27.
The Celtics, without star Isaiah Thomas, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the playoffs due to a hip injury, were led by Avery Bradley with 19 points and five rebounds.
Jae Crowder (18 points), Al Horford (16 points) and Kelly Olynyk (15 points) also reached double figures for the Celtics.
Kevin Love backed Irving and James with 17 points and 17 rebounds, and Tristan Thompson added seven points and seven rebounds.
Love made a 3-pointer and two free throws to give the Cavaliers a 5-0 lead before the Celtics responded with an 11-0 run.
James tossed down a powerful right-handed dunk following an outlet pass by Love to cut the Cavs deficit to 18-13 at 4:18, but the Celtics kept shooting well and extended their lead to 29-19 as the quarter came to a close.
Crowder was perfect in the first quarter making 3-of-3 from 3-point range and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line for 11 points.
The Celtics continued to successfully fire away in the second quarter and the Cavs continued to struggle. Jonas Jerebko opened the quarter with a dunk, James picked up his fourth foul with 6:46 on the clock, and Jaylen Brown and Bradley both nailed 3-pointers to give the Celtics a 49-33 lead at 5:30.
Irving made two 3-pointers, two layups and two free throws with James on the bench, but the Celtics took a 57-47 lead into halftime with Crowder, Bradley, Olynyk, Brown and Horford combining for 47 points. Irving had 18 points at halftime, and Love and James both had 10 points.
James made a jumper and added a dunk to trim the Cavs’ deficit to 61-54 with 8:43 to go in the third quarter, and force Celtics coach Brad Stevens to call a timeout.
The Cavs drew to within 61-58 when J.R. Smith followed an Irving miss with a dunk and James made a layup.
The Cavs kept charging and put together a 14-3 run to take a 77-72 lead with 1:47 left in the third quarter. Smith started the spurt with a 3-pointer, Irving made a layup and a 3, James dropped in two free throws and Irving contributed two more layups.
Irving continued his scoring binge to close out the third quarter with three more layups, a free throw and a deep 3-pointer just before the horn to give the Cavs a seven-point lead.
James scored eight of the Cavs’ first 11 points in the fourth quarter to propel the Cavs to a 98-88 lead with 7:57 to go.
He later pushed the lead to 110-97 with 2:28 left with a 3, a layup and a jumper.
Irving capped the scoring with a fancy layup with the crowd roaring.
The Cavs shot 59.5 percent from the field (44-of-74) and 82.4 percent from the free-throw line (14-of-17).
The Celtics made 44.3 percent of their shots from the field (35-of-79) and 95 percent of their free throws (19-of-20).
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.