CLEVELAND — LeBron James likes to say a playoff series doesn’t start until the visiting team wins a game.
The Cavaliers gave themselves one last chance to do so by defeating the Boston Celtics 74-69 in Game 6 Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena, setting up a seventh and deciding game Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at TD Banknorth Garden.
“We can win,” said James, who had 32 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and eight turnovers in 47 minutes. “We know we can win. We’ve just got to go out and do it.”
If the Cavaliers don’t win, Boston will have won two series without capturing a road game, rendering James’ theory moot.
The Celtics, who got 25 points and eight rebounds from Kevin Garnett and 16 points from Paul Pierce, are 7-0 at home in the playoffs and 42-6 overall this season.
“Both teams will be ready,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “I’m glad it’s at our place.”
Other than James, Delonte West was the only Cleveland player to score in double figures. He had 10 points as the Cavaliers won on a night when they shot .329 from the field (24-of-73).
James had 19 points in the second half and assisted on three other buckets that accounted for seven points, meaning he had a direct hand in 26 of the 32 points Cleveland scored in the second half.
“It was either win or go home,” the 23-year-old said. “I’m not ready to go home.”
Neither are his teammates. The Cavaliers grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, which led to a whopping 17-2 edge in second-chance points, and outscored Boston by 10 points at the line. Cleveland was 21-of-25 at the stripe, while Boston was 11-of-13.
“I thought we drove just as hard as them,” Rivers said. “Somehow they ended up on the line and we didn’t.”
James made 13 of 15 free throws — or two more than the Celtics made and attempted as a team. That helped offset a 9-of-23 shooting performance, which makes the 6-foot-8, 250-pounder 41-of-126 in the series.
“The offenses are struggling,” James said. “The defense picked up on both ends, Boston and Cleveland.”
The Cavaliers, who set a franchise record for fewest points allowed in a playoff game (72 by New Jersey in 2007 and Detroit in ’06), held Boston to quarter scoring totals of 18, 15, 17 and 19.
“Defensively, we were as solid as we could be against this team,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “Individually and as a team, we took on the challenge.”
Down 72-67, the Celtics had the ball with less than a minute to play, but Pierce was called for a highly questionable offensive foul when James was not only moving his feet, but reaching in as well.
“That’s a huge call in this game to make,” Rivers said. “We played hard. I’m just going to stop there.”
James missed a baseline fadeaway on Cleveland’s subsequent possession and the Celtics got within three on a pair of free throws by rapidly aging Ray Allen with 23.4 ticks on the clock. But two Joe Smith free throws put the Cavaliers up five with 14.4 seconds left and Cleveland held tough at the defensive end to finally secure the victory.
“I’ll tell you what: That was a grind-it-out basketball game,” Brown said. “The start was a little rocky for both teams, but we kept our poise.”
Up 13 with 9:55 to go in the game, the Cavaliers went 4:08 without a point as Boston went on an 8-0 run to get back within five with 6:09 left. The Celtics could have been closer, but Pierce missed a layup and Garnett, whose game crumbled down the stretch, bricked a wide-open jumper.
James then took matters into his own hands, scoring on a drive and an awkward jumper where he was really trying to draw a foul to give the Cavaliers a 69-60 lead with 4:06 to play.
“Every play was a big play down the stretch,” Brown said. “We kept our poise.”
It looked like the Cavaliers had taken total control when James scored the first seven points of the third period to complete a 24-2 run that put them up 49-33, but they suddenly stopped attacking and missed a lot of forced jump shots with the 24-second clock winding down.
The Celtics caught fire at the same time, going on a lightning-quick 13-0 run to get within three, but the Cavaliers became aggressive again and came right back with a 10-0 run — six by James, four by Anderson Varejao — to go back up 13 early in the fourth period.
The Cavaliers, who were shooting 28 percent from the field late in the second quarter, were horrible for most of the first half — James had five turnovers — but they turned it on in a big way to go up 42-33 at intermission.
Playing tenacious defense against Boston’s pick-and-roll, Cleveland closed the half on a 17-2 run. It was capped by West’s running 3-pointer at the buzzer, which came after Boston had called time with 6.8 seconds left to set up its final offensive play, only to commit a turnover in the open court.
“That was huge for us,” Brown said.
The Celtics, who seemed to be controlling the game with a six-point lead, missed their last 10 shots of the first half and repeatedly sent the Cavaliers, who couldn’t make anything from the field to that point, to the free throw line.
Cleveland was 15-of-18 at the stripe compared to Boston’s 4-of-5 over the first two quarters, with James making 9-of-11 to offset a horrible 2-of-9 performance from the field.
The Cavaliers also did a great job banging the offensive boards, grabbing 10 to build a 10-0 edge in second-chance points.
An absolutely ugly first quarter — at the 2:59 mark the teams had combined for 20 missed shots and 12 turnovers — ended in an 18-18 tie.
James missed his first five shots and threw the ball away three times, but turned up his aggressiveness late in the first period and continued to attack the rim in the second quarter.
James didn’t score his first points until converting a three-point play off his own miss with 1:10 left in the opening period, but still found a way to finish the half with 13 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

Cavaliers 74, Celtics 69

BOSTON (69): Pierce 5-15 4-4 16, Garnett 11-21 3-4 25, Perkins 2-4 1-2 5, Rondo 1-4 0-0 2, R.Allen 3-8 3-3 9, P.Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Posey 0-2 0-0 0, Davis 2-8 0-0 4, House 3-5 0-0 8. Totals 27-68 11-13 69.
CLEVELAND (74): James 9-23 13-15 32, Wallace 0-3 0-0 0, Ilgauskas 3-11 1-1 7, West 4-7 0-0 10, Szczerbiak 2-11 4-4 9, Varejao 2-6 0-1 4, Smith 3-4 3-4 9, Pavlovic 1-6 0-0 3, Da.Jones 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 24-73 21-25 74.
Boston    18    15    17    19    —    69
Cleveland    18    24    17    15    —    74
3-Point Goals—Boston 4-16 (House 2-3, Pierce 2-6, Garnett 0-2, Posey 0-2, R.Allen 0-3), Cleveland 5-16 (West 2-3, Pavlovic 1-3, James 1-3, Szczerbiak 1-6, Da.Jones 0-1). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Boston 43 (Garnett 8), Cleveland 53 (James 12). Assists—Boston 19 (Rondo 5), Cleveland 10 (James 6). Total Fouls—Boston 25, Cleveland 16. Technicals—Boston defensive three second, Cleveland defensive three second. A—20,562 (20,562).
 

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