The Boston Celtics gave it their all but still fell short in Cleveland, as they attempted to win Game 4 and bring the Eastern Conference Finals back to the TD Gardens tied with Cavaliers                                                                         The win in Game 3, the lead they had in Game 4, and the dramatic way in which Kyrie Irving led a come-back, took the wind out of Celtic sails. Now down 3-1, their tiredness, and the desperation of LeBron James and Cleveland may see the series end on the parquet floor on Thursday.

The Celtics have lost four games on their own floor these playoffs. If the first two losses can be attributed to the shock of Point Guard Isaiah Thomas losing his sister and the collective subsequent recovery of their mojo; the next two losses – to Cleveland – after the Greens had gotten into their groove, could be attributed to the better personnel and better basketball the Cavaliers have on offer. And those are the major reasons a fifth home-loss may be on the horizon for the Celtics.

Boston rebounded from the first two defeats at the hands of Chicago by stifling the Bulls. The Celtics are a steady low to medium 40’s in field goal percentage shooting: they shot 43.0, 46.3, 47.7 and 46.3 in the first four games against Chicago; the shooting in Games 2 and 4 matched, but they won one and lost the other.

The difference was what they did to the Bulls, by way of taking their shots away. Chicago’s FG shooting percentage wavered wildly from game to game: 42.9 percent in Game 1, then 50.6 percent, 39.3 percent, and 42.1 percent in Games 2 through 4. They have not been able to do the same with the Cavaliers, who have simply found other outlets of creativity and scoring, when the need arises: the Cavs have shot 56.5 percent and 59.5 percent on either side of the ‘poor’ 45.7 percent FG recorded in the Game 3 loss.

Kyrie Irving carried the Cavaliers in Game 4. The All-Star Point Guard has had a relatively quiet postseason until now, leaving LeBron James and Kevin Love to shoulder the scoring burden for the Cavaliers. He seems in the mood now. The career-high 42 points he dropped in Game 4, might just be the precursor of things to come; just like he did in the NBA Finals last season.

Then there is LeBron himself. It has been alleged that he caught a bug just before the 11-point horror show of Game 3. Then he got in early foul trouble in Game 4, but LeBron redeemed himself with his fourth quarter performance, as he dropped 15 of his 34 points on the Celtics, to follow Irving’s third quarter performance. And since ‘The King’ likes putting on a show on foreign floors, he might start early in Boston.