Wine & Gold Nuggets: Shorthanded Cavs give Celtics all they have but Boston wins 109-102 with LeBron James courtside

CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – With LeBron James seated courtside Monday night for Game 4, it was hard not to wish he wasn’t on the floor again in wine and gold.

Darius Garland scored 30 for the Cavs, but Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 33 for Boston and Jaylen Brown threw in 27 more for the Celtics, who took a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 109-102 win Monday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Here’s our top Wine & Gold Nuggets from Game 4.

Hanging tough – Center Jarrett Allen missed his seventh straight playoff game with bruised ribs and All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who walked out of the locker room with a slight limp Monday, had to sit after suffering a left calf injury in Game 3. “They laid it all out there,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “They gave us everything that they had. They competed at a high level. They played the game properly. I'm proud of the guys the way they went out and scrapped and competed and gave ourselves a chance.” The Cavs trailed by as many as 15 in the second half, but they hung tough and cut Boston’s lead to five three times, including with 1:55 remaining at 102-97, in the fourth quarter but couldn’t get any closer. “I feel like they hit some tough shots in that fourth quarter,” Caris LeVert, who scored 19 points to go with five rebounds and three assists in place of Mitchell, said. “I think we fought back hard all night, but I think in that third quarter they got a little bit of separation. They hit some threes, we missed some threes and then obviously we fought back in the fourth, but I think the third was when, if I'm not mistaken, got a little bit of separation from us.”

No blood, no foul – One team was forced to play with playground rules Monday night, and it wasn’t the home team. “I was disappointed with the way the whistle blew tonight,” Bickerstaff said. “I thought our guys deserved much better the way that they were competing. They were attacking the paint they were getting after it, the same as both teams were. We're not asking for anything more, but we're asking for equal, and I don't think we got an equal opportunity at it tonight from that standpoint.” The officiating did not cost the Cavs the game, but the disparity in free throws was disproportionate – 24 for the Celtics, just seven for the Cavs. “This is our second time in the playoffs this year [with] like under 10 free throws,” Garland said. “I mean, I'm not going to go into it, but that's ridiculous for the amount of drives that we have, the amount of paint attacks, whatever you want to call it. It is really tough. Just having seven free throws in a basketball game when they're getting 24, I don't know. I'm not one of the refs. I'm not one of those guys with a striped shirt, but I know how many times I get hit. I know how many times my teammates get hit put on the floor and we can't reciprocate it. It's tough.” Boston was whistled for 12 fouls while Cleveland got hit with 17. “I mean that's part of the game,” Evan Mobley, who finished with 19 points nine rebounds, three assists and a steal, said. “Call's always going to be missed. You got to just find a way to still get the win. But yeah, it's tough sometimes when the ball goes out on them and somehow, it’s their ball, but you got to just keep fighting and, in the playoffs, big calls are going to be wrong. Sometimes you got to just keep playing through it.”

Hot n cold – Cleveland hit six of their first seven threes but went ice cold from deep after that. “We got great looks,” Bickerstaff said. “Obviously there's a few you wish you could have back, but for the most part I thought our guys again did the right thing and created for one another and we got wide open shots from guys that we trust will make those shots. So we played the game selflessly and created for one another. We'll live with that.” Cleveland hit just nine of their last 41 tries from beyond the arc after the hot start. “That's where basketball's going,” Garland, who made four of his 13 tries, said. “We got to shoot threes. That just opens everything else up for driving lanes and the lobs… I'll start shooting a couple of trey balls and they were going for us in the first half and a little bit in the third, so just got to keep shooting it with confidence.”

Third Q blues – The Cavs opened with an 8-2 run coming out of the locker room capped by a Garland layup that gave the Cavs their last lead of the night, 65-64, because Boston countered by outscoring Cleveland 24-13 over the final nine minutes of the quarter to take an 88-78 lead. “Coming out of halftime last game, they threw the first punch and we couldn't sustain the run,” Garland said. “Tonight they threw another punch and we stayed with it. We stayed with it for a little bit and just couldn't get over the hump in the second half.”

Strus loose – Strus kept the Cavs in it with a barrage of hits from deep. Strus hit all five threes in the first half to lead the Cavs in scoring with 15 points. “Just had good open looks,” Strus said. “They did a good job of taking those away from me. The rest of the game couldn't find another one.” Strus, who finished five of 12 from the field, would not hit another shot and foul out with 1:20 remaining and the Cavs trailing by 5.

Courtside King – James sat across from the Celtics bench between his wife, Savannah, and super-agent Rich Paul. James blew kisses to the crowd after he was recognized with a tribute video, introduction and rousing ovation during a timeout in the first quarter. “It’s cool,” Garland said.

Starting 5 – Bickerstaff went with Evan Mobley, Max Strus, Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert and Darius Garland Monday night.

Series schedule – Game 5 in Boston Wednesday, 7 p.m. on TNT; *Game 6 in Cleveland Friday, TBD on ESPN; *Game 7 in Boston Sunday, May 19, TBD on TBD (* If Necessary)