BOSTON — Earning home-court advantage is important. If the Cavaliers don’t know it now, they never will.
Boston improved to 8-0 in the playoffs at TD Banknorth Garden by beating Cleveland 97-92 Sunday in Game 7, meaning the Celtics have reached the Eastern Conference finals despite the fact they are 0-6 on the road.
“Boston did the work in the regular season to get in this position,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said of the Celtics’ NBA-high 66 regular-season victories.
Even Cavs superstar LeBron James, who has said throughout his five-year career that it doesn’t matter to him who Cleveland plays or where it is seeded in the playoffs, seems to be starting to recognize how important the home floor can be.
“Home-court (advantage) meant a lot in this round,” he said. “(The Celtics) worked hard all year to get home-court advantage. I don’t think Coach (Doc) Rivers or those guys would ever think it would matter so much to them.”
The Cavs, meanwhile, endured a preseason trip to China, holdouts by Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic, a huge deal at the trade deadline and numerous injuries to finish 45-37 in the regular season, the fourth-best mark in the Eastern Conference.
“What we have is very good, but we need to continue to get better,” James said. “If that means some personnel changes need to be made, so be it.”
The Cavs brought in four new players by acquiring Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace and Joe Smith on Feb. 21, but they fell two steps shy of duplicating their 2007 NBA Finals appearance.
“I’ve always been a winner and I am a winner,” James said, “but I’m disappointed our season is over.”

Hype it up

James had 45 points in Game 7 and Boston’s Paul Pierce had 41, causing a lot of people to make comparisons to the memorable 1988 playoff shootout between Celtics legend Larry Bird and Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins. Wilkins had 16 of his 47 points in the fourth period, while Bird had 22 of his 34 to lead Boston to a 118-116 victory. James had 13 points in the fourth period, while Pierce had six.
“The fans came to see Paul Pierce and LeBron James play,” James said. “Which guy is going to lead his team to victory?”
James and Pierce, who haven’t always seen eye to eye on the court, exchanged smiles and kind words while the teams were coming out of a third-quarter timeout.
“They came to see us play, so let’s give the fans something to remember,” James said he told Pierce. “I think the second round of the postseason, Game 7, these fans finally have an opportunity to forget a little bit about what Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkins did and remember what Paul Pierce and LeBron did. It was two great guys just going at it. It was very exciting to be a part of it, especially in this building. Like I said, Game 7 in the Garden, it gets no better than this. As a fan of basketball, I know so much about the history. This will go down in history.”

Quick wit

Celtics power forward Kevin Garnett almost always gets off a few good one-liners when he’s seated next to the talkative Pierce at the interview podium.
When Pierce was asked two straight questions about running into a camera man along the baseline near the end of the first half, Garnett blurted out, “(Expletive deleted), I should have ran into a camera.”
Seconds later, he offered this tidbit on the shootout between Pierce and James: “That’s classic there. I look forward to seeing it on (ESPN) Classic in another three, four days.”

Rough start

As good as James was in Game 7, his started just 1-of-5 from the field as the Cavaliers fell behind 16-4 with 4:33 to play in the first period. Cleveland got as close as one late in the game, but didn’t lead the entire afternoon.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Brown said. “We dug a hole for ourselves early, but as a group we fought to get back in the game.”

Horsing around

Brown has taken a liking to his thoroughbred namesake, Big Brown, who has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
“I’ll be associated with Big Brown,” the coach said. “He’s a winner.”

Tip-ins

James finished the series shooting .355 from the field
(55-of-155), while Pierce came in at .404 (44-of-109).
• Cleveland’s West and Boston’s Eddie House were assessed technicals after a first-half skirmish.
• Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas played with a sleeve on his right elbow.

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