The Cleveland Cavaliers have knotted their Eastern Conference finals series with the Boston Celtics at two wins apiece following a pair of comprehensive victories in Games 3 and 4. On Monday night, the Cavs took Boston down in a 111-102 win to give themselves a nice momentum ahead of a pivotal Game 5 match in Beantown, where LeBron James is expecting a hostile environment and a rowdy crowd. He elucidated on that during a postgame interview on the court, which you could view below.
James has become one of the biggest villains for Boston sports fans thanks to his teams’ (Miami Heat, Cavaliers) frequent matchups with the Celtics in past postseason campaigns. James obviously is not oblivious of that, as evidenced by the manner he spoke about what he anticipates from Celtics fans when he and the Cavs travel to Boston for Game 5 of the series this Wednesday.
The Cavs lost their first two trips to Boston in these playoffs, but with newfound momentum and moxie, they are hoping they could end their two-game losing streak at TD Garden next game. Cleveland is 5-2 in its last seven playoff games in Boston but is also only 6-8 in the team’s last 14 postseason contests there dating back to 2008.
The Celtics, meanwhile, have been tough to beat at home of late. In fact, they are undefeated in their last 10 games at TD Garden dating back to the regular season. The last time they lost at home was on Apr. 8 when they were upset by a visiting Atlanta Hawks squad, 112-106.