INDEPENDENCE — It was the last thing LeBron James said at his postgame press conference following Game 5 at TD Banknorth Garden.
The Cavaliers had just lost 96-89 to the Boston Celtics, placing them in a must-win situation in Game 6 tonight at 8 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Win and the Cavaliers force a seventh and deciding Game 7 Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Boston. Lose and they’re done.
“We know it’s a win-or-go-home situation,” James said. “We have to approach it like that. A LeBron James team is never desperate.”
With that, the 6-foot-8, 250-pounder got up and left the interview podium. He had just scored 35 points, by far his best offensive output in the series, but once again the Cavaliers had lost in Boston, just as they did when he went 2-of-18 from the field in Game 1 and 6-of-24 in Game 2.
“As an individual, I don’t care how well I play offensively,” James said. “All that matters is if you win. I’d rather play bad and shoot bad from the field and turn the ball over a couple of times and get a win. That’s all it’s about is getting team wins. My individual play doesn’t mean anything when we lose.”
If the Cavaliers are going to extend their season tonight, they’re probably going to need a solid effort from their superstar, who had just two points in the third quarter of Game 5, when he was 1-of-4 from the field en route to missing nine of his last 13 shots.
“It just reminded me I was human, that’s all,” James said of the pivotal third quarter.
As good as James is, the Cavaliers know he can’t do it alone. They know they’re going to have to limit their turnovers. They committed 17 in Game 5 and paid dearly for most of them. That’s why the Celtics went from scoring 29 points in the first 20:30 of the game to exploding for 67 in the last 27:30.
“We can’t get outscored by 12 on the road and turn the ball over like we did in the third quarter,” James said of losing that period 29-17. “As a team, we didn’t turn the ball over a lot, but when we did, they made us pay for it.”
The Cavaliers led 43-29 with 3:30 to go in the first half. Late in the third period, they were down 71-59, meaning they were outscored 42-16.
They threw the ball away on their first three possessions of the second half. They forgot they have a 7-foot-3 center who can shoot. At one point, they allowed the Celtics, suddenly red hot, to score on nine of 11 possessions. They turned Boston point guard Rajon Rondo, who finished with 20 points, 13 assists and just one turnover, into an all-world player. Then they lost Daniel “Boobie” Gibson, who was examined again Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic and will be out one to two weeks, with a separated left shoulder.
None of that matters now, other than using the things they did wrong in Game 5 as a learning tool in Game 6.
The Cavaliers can’t afford to dominate most of the first half, go up 14, then give up all but three points of that lead before intermission.
They can’t afford defensive lapses against the Celtics, who are 0-5 on the road in the playoffs and desperate to get their swagger back away from home.
They have to find a way to get center Zydrunas Ilgauskas more involved. For that matter, Ilgauskas, who was 2-of-5 from the field in Game 5, has to find a way to get himself more involved.
“I just couldn’t get any shots,” Ilgauskas said. “I’ve got to find a way to somehow get myself more involved. It’s up to me to figure it out.”
In short, it’s up to all the Cavaliers to come through tonight.
Anderson Varejao can’t go 2-of-6 at the line. Wally Szczerbiak can’t fail to block out or lose his man defensively. James can’t score just two points in an 18-minute span, like he did in a stretch that started in the second quarter and extended into the fourth. Ilgauskas, Varejao, Ben Wallace and Joe Smith can’t let the Celtics get to the rim uncontested. Delonte West and Szczerbiak can’t allow their man to get around them in the first place.
Desperate? Depends on who you ask.
 “Our backs are against the wall,” Szczerbiak said. “We’re desperate, so we’ve got to play that way.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

TONIGHT

WHO: Boston at Cleveland
WHAT: Game 6, Celtics lead series, 3-2
TIME: 8 o’clock
WHERE: The Q
TV/RADIO: Channel 43, FSN Ohio, ESPN; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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