CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving scored 32 points and registered his fifth double-double in his last seven games to allow the Cleveland Cavaliers to hold on for a 124-118 victory Thursday against the Boston Celtics.
The Cavaliers blew nearly all of an 18-point lead entering the fourth. A driving basket by Isaiah Thomas pulled Boston within 117-116 with about a minute left before Irving countered with a drive of his own.
Thomas was fouled on the Celtics’ next possession and sank both free throws while Irving subbed out of the game with 47 seconds left. Irving seemed to be grabbing at his right hamstring on his way off the floor and remained out the rest of the night.
Irving’s absence left the ball in James’ turnover-prone hands on the Cavs’ final possession. James tried driving on Celtics guard Marcus Smart, who fouled him with 21 seconds left. James split the free throws to give the Cavs a 120-118 lead, but left the Celtics with a chance to send the game to overtime or win it at the buzzer with a 3-pointer.
Jae Crowder’s open look at a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left clanked off the rim and Richard Jefferson grabbed the rebound. The Celtics had a 20-second timeout left but opted not to use it prior to Crowder’s look.
Thomas scored 31 points and Avery Bradley scored 23 points for the Celtics, who scored 35 points in the fourth to make the game close in the final minutes.
Kevin Love scored 30 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and James celebrated his 32nd birthday a day early with 23 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. He also committed eight turnovers and shot just 3-of-7 from the free-throw line.
Love scored 11 points in the third quarter and the Cavs built a 101-81 lead late in the third before the Celtics fought back in the fourth. It was reminiscent of a game here 10 months ago against these same Celtics when the Cavs blew a five-point lead in the final 19 seconds and Boston stole the win at the buzzer.
NOTES: Celtics coach Brad Stevens attended a football practice at Ohio State while he was in Columbus for a wedding. Buckeyes basketball coach Thad Matta set it up since Stevens was once an assistant under Matta at Butler. Stevens’ wife has a lot of family from Cleveland and his father went to medical school at Ohio State. Stevens said he watched Cavs G Kyrie Irving in high school at an under-18 tryout. “He was ridiculous then, by far the best player on the court,” Stevens said. “The guy’s always been destined to be one of the better players around. … On the eve of his 32nd birthday, F LeBron James said he doesn’t see many similarities between his game and Michael Jordan’s. “Our games are so different,” James said. “He was much more of a scorer, and that (age) did a lot of post work at that time. But our games are just different. His body is different. My body is different than his. You recognize the dominance that someone had at that age, but there’s no similarities in our game at all.”