The Eastern Conference Finals showdown between the Celtics and Cavaliers had already been marked by the usual and unexpected entering Game 4.
The Cavs blistered the Celtics with a 44-point loss on the TD Garden parquet in Game 2. Their season presumed on life support entering Game 3, the Celtics instead got a 27-point sharpshooting masterpiece from Marcus Smart — who will never receive an invite to the All-Star Weekend 3-point Shootout unless 200 others get lost in the mail — to steal a win and add some much-needed suspense to the series.
But nothing was odder than what turned out to be the turning point in the Cavs’ come-from-behind 112-99 victory in Game 4 Tuesday night. LeBron James found himself in foul trouble, about as rare of an occurrence as the habitually incredulous Kevin Love agreeing with an official’s call.
And yet somehow James’s zebra problems ended up being a blessing for the Cavaliers and what we’ll likely regard when all is said and done as the official beginning of the end for these admirable but outmanned Celtics. His absence allowed the Kyrie Irving Show to take the stage.
James was hit with his fourth foul with 6 minutes and 46 seconds left in the second quarter after barreling into Terry Rozier. When he went to the bench, the Celtics led 43-33. All was well.
It seemed an opportune time to build on the lead and put a genuine scare into a goofy Cleveland crowd that relies on scoreboard prompts such as Ben Roethlisberger photos as cues to cheer and boo. The Celtics had a real chance to make Steph Curry look presumptive for saying the Warriors know they’ll be playing the Cavs in the Finals.
Instead, James’s hiatus on the bench gave Kyrie Irving a chance to play hero ball. And a hero he became, again.
Irving scored 42 points — including 33 in 19 minutes after James’s fourth foul — to steer the series back in Cleveland’s command heading to Game 5 in Boston Thursday night.
“In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘They cannot tie up this series. They cannot,’’ said Irving. “We cannot go to Boston 2-2 and then it becomes almost an even series. Our focus level had to be at an all-time high.”
Irving’s dynamic skill-set — he’s one of the flashiest ballhandlers and most creative at-the-rim finishers in the league, and his range is limitless when he’s on — is sometimes overshadowed by the general magnitude of James.
But he is the player who hit the championship-winning shot last year, and he seizes and savors his opportunities to singularly shine.
He began seizing his chance in the second quarter, scoring 12 points in the frame and 18 overall in the first half, but the Celtics took a 57-47 lead into the break.
The Celtics seemed to have endured the outburst without too much damage. Turns out Irving was just getting warmed up en route to scorching.
Irving dropped 21 points in the third quarter alone on the Celtics, including 6 layups, a pair of 3-pointers, and a free throw in a span of less than 5 minutes. Sixteen of his points came in the final 3:48 of the third. The Cavs outscored the Celtics 43-20 in the quarter, seizing control of the game and, after a fairly suspenseless fourth quarter, the series.
James said Irving’s performance was no surprise to him.
“I’ve been saying he’s a special kid since I got here,’’ said James, who finished with 34 points. “He’s a special talent. As the stakes get higher and higher, his game gets higher and higher.”
This was a performance reminiscent of the best of Isiah Thomas. No, not Isaiah Thomas, the injured Celtics dynamo whom many of you insisted rather parochially in a Boston.com reader-response question a few days ago that you wouldn’t trade for Irving.
This performance was an unintentional homage to the original Isiah Thomas’s legendary 25-point quarter for the Pistons in Game 6 of the 1988 NBA Finals. The Hall of Famer. The best little man ever to play the game. The one who got hosed by the Dream Team. That Isiah Thomas.
The Celtics’ two superb defensive guards, Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart, could not slow Irving. And on the offensive end, even in tandem, they could not counter him. They combined for 27 points on 8 of 28 shooting — the same point total Smart had solo in Game 3. Bradley was the Celtics’ high scorer with just 19 points. Those narratives that Isaiah Thomas is somehow expendable met an abrupt and deserved demise Tuesday. The Celtics miss his offense, and defense doesn’t much matter when Irving is reveling so deep in the zone.
Smart finished just 1 for 9 from the field, missing left, right, short and long all night in what is known in math circles as regression to the mean. His most egregious miss was a 3-point bid with 5:45 left to play that, had it gone would have pulled the Celtics, trailing 98-92 at the time, to within 3 points. But it refused to fall, Love buried a 3 on the other end, and it was all over but the final accounting.
It was appropriate, then, that Irving scored the last bucket of the game, a stylish layup after he faked a Rondo-style wraparound pass. He deserved to punctuate the win after delivering exclamation-point plays time and again.
“All the [counter moves], and he’s able to shoot the ball,’’ said a gracious Bradley, beginning to list Irving’s strengths during his postgame interview session. “You can’t get into him too much. You can’t back off him too much. He’s a great finisher. He’s one of the best point guards in the NBA, and you can tell he puts a lot of work into his game.”
The Celtics might have thought they were getting a break when James had to leave the game. Little did they know that the Cavaliers’ other superstar was about to seize it, and perhaps the series too. The Celtics could use a Kyrie Irving of their own, don’t you think?
