CLEVELAND — Forget about the shooting numbers. LeBron James delivered Monday night.
Whether it was setting up his teammates or throwing down an absolutely monstrous windmill dunk that essentially ended Game 4, the 6-foot-8, 250-pounder did anything and everything the Cavaliers needed against the Boston Celtics at Quicken Loans Arena.
Give the Cavaliers an 88-77 victory and a 2-2 tie in the best-of-seven series, which resumes Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden.
Give James 21 points, six rebounds and 13 wonderful assists, which tied his career playoff high.
Forget about the 7-of-20 shooting from the field, including the 2-of-12 disaster from the perimeter.
Forget that he is now 20-of-78 from the field in the series, including 7-of-53 on jump shots.
Forget that he is averaging just 18.8 points, well off his league-leading 30.0 in the regular season.
Remember only that the Cavaliers won this game, and that they wouldn’t have done it without their superstar.
“I just wanted to continue to try to be aggressive,” James said. “The shots that I have been taking have felt great.”
The results of those shots haven’t been very good, so James left absolutely no doubt by throwing down a thundering windmill dunk to put the Cavaliers up 84-75 with 1:45 to go.
He celebrated by repeatedly bumping chests with teammates during a Boston timeout, while the Celtics hung their heads after falling to 0-5 on the road in the playoffs.
“You think LeBron is struggling?” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “Twenty-one points, 13 assists, six rebounds. He probably forced 15 fouls. We don’t look at that as LeBron struggling.”
Neither does Cleveland coach Mike Brown, who tried to imitate his superstar’s flex pose during the timeout following the huge slam.
“I didn’t have any muscles to flex, so I just flexed my jaw and gave him five,” Brown said. “That was unbelievable.”
The Cavaliers also got 14 points apiece from Wally Szczerbiak and Daniel “Boobie” Gibson, the latter delivering eight clutch points as Cleveland outscored Boston 20-12 in the pivotal fourth period.
Anderson Varejao was equally big with 12 points and six rebounds, several of the latter coming in traffic at the defensive end in the fourth quarter.
“Our bench was terrific,” Brown said. “Every guy that came off the bench really contributed in a big way.”
Boston, which shot just .386 from the field (27-of-70), got 15 points from Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. Garnett also had 10 rebounds and four assists, but scored just six points after the first 5:24 of the game.
Paul Pierce, the Celtics’ leading scorer during the regular season at almost 20 points a game, continued to struggle, finishing with 13 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
“We started looking for jumpers and threes when we really didn’t need to,” Rivers said. “But give (the Cavaliers) credit.”
More specifically, give credit to James, whose passing was as good as his shooting was bad.
“He’s going to impact this game in a lot of different ways,” Brown said.
He did.
There was a simple swing pass to Gibson for a 3-pointer that gave Cleveland a 74-69 lead with 8:45 left. There was a drive left into the lane, then a great leaping, no-look pass to a wide-open Joe Smith for a 76-71 lead with 7:27 to go.
The Cavaliers didn’t score for the next 4:10 after Smith’s bucket, but Boston managed just two points in that span. When James ended a personal streak of six straight misses with a 3-pointer at the 3:17 mark, Cleveland had actually expanded its lead to 79-73.
Soon after, James dished to Gibson for another three, then put the exclamation point on the victory with his slam.
“He can dunk,” Rivers said. “You give him a running start at the basket, it’s probably going to be a pretty good dunk.”
James didn’t score from the perimeter — he had missed five jumpers — until making what was almost a flat-footed 3-pointer at the 4:20 mark of the third period.
No more than eight points separated the teams over the first three quarters, with the biggest lead of the third period being three points by Cleveland, 68-65, heading into the final 12 minutes.
It looked like James was going to play the entire first half, but he was forced to the bench when he picked up his third foul with 3:53 to go in the second quarter.
James was the victim of a few whistles normally reserved for someone like Sasha Pavlovic, particularly a charging call by out-of-position official Mark Wunderlich — Boston’s P.J. Brown was not set — on what would have been a potential three-point play with 7:03 to go in the second quarter.
James also was wrapped up by Pierce on a drive to the hoop with 4:13 to go in the half, with the momentum of the two players carrying them into the stands along the baseline, where James’ mother, Gloria, was seated. An angry Gloria James was screaming at the end of the play, which didn’t even result in a flagrant foul, but her son told her, in no uncertain terms, to sit down.
At the time of James’ third foul, the Cavaliers were leading 41-33, but Boston went on a 10-4 run to pull within two at intermission.
James’ shooting woes from the perimeter continued over the first two quarters, but he scored on four aggressive drives en route to a 12-point, four-rebound, five-assist half.
Garnett kept Boston in the game with 12 points and eight rebounds in the first half.
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

NEXT UP

WHO: Cleveland at Boston
WHAT: Game 5, series tied 2-2
WHEN: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
WHERE: TD Banknorth Garden, Boston
TV/RADIO: TNT; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

 

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