Slip slidin’ away

BOSTON – You get the feeling that the Cleveland Cavaliers lost more than a game in Boston?

Yes, they still are very much alive in their conference semifinal with the Boston Celtics, but on a night when the Celtics looked vulnerable and tight, the Cavaliers let them off the hook.

And now Cleveland faces the task of doing what no team has done to the Celtics – beat them in a series when Boston has had a 3-2 lead. Boston can close out the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Friday night, which would be another story in that the Celtics are 0-5 on the road in the playoffs and play like wimps.

But they also are an indisputable 7-0 at home after Thursday’s 96-89 victory, even if for nearly the entire first half (emphasis on the word “nearly”) the Cavaliers had things going so well that it looked like every play came off coach Mike Brown’s whiteboard. LeBron James was headed toward another memorable Game 5 performance, replicating his astonishing effort in Game 5 a year ago in Auburn Hills (48 points). The Cavaliers built a 14-point lead, quieted the Boston crowd, played excellent defense, got every loose ball and rebound, and looked to one and all as if they were ready to seize the series and take it back to Cleveland to put the presumptive nail in the Boston coffin.

James had just knocked down a 22-footer, his eighth basket of the night (or as many as he had in the first two games in Boston), to give Cleveland a 43-29 lead with 3 minutes, 50 seconds left in the first half. The hoop capped a stretch of eight straight James points – he had 23 in the first half as he out-quicked the Celtics’ double-teams, got into the paint and, well, you know how that story goes. It was like he was serving notice that, after four underwhelming games – he shot 25.6 percent in the first four – he was ready to be LeBron again and take over. He didn’t even need his mother to explain that.

But then, inexplicably and quite quickly, the Cavaliers simply fell apart. It was as if the Celtics looked at one another and said, collectively, “Hey, we’re not in Cleveland anymore so let’s stop playing like we are.” Over the course of the playoffs, the Celtics have made bad teams (Atlanta) and so-so teams (Cleveland) look very good at home

But when those fellows came to Boston, it always has been a different story. Only one of the Celtics’ home playoff games has been decided by fewer than five points – Game 1 of this series – and, in the end, Game 5 once again re-established why Boston is going to be a tough out.

“They have a good cushion. They don’t have to win on the road,” offered the Cavaliers’ Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

But the Cavaliers do if they are to stick around. They were close in Game 1 and blown out in Game 2, but their third chance looked like a charm, especially with James looking dominant and the Celtics coming out in road mode. The Celtics were tight. They rushed things. They missed easy shots. But the 43-29 lead for the Cavaliers was their highlight of the evening. Unfortunately for them, there still was almost 28 minutes of basketball to play.

The Celtics used a 14-3 run to end the half, bringing the deficit to a somewhat misleading three at the break. As Doc Rivers noted, “We’re not playing great. LeBron is playing great. And we’re only down three.”

That run featured back-to-back three-pointers by Rajon Rondo, and, well, when those things happen it is not a good sign for the Celtics’ opponent. Rondo has trouble with 15-footers, let alone threes, and made a grand total of five all season (in 19 attempts). But he is going to get open looks, and he coolly swished both shots, igniting the team and the crowd.

Rondo finished with 20 points, 13 assists, two steals and one turnover in 42 minutes. (He is making Sam Cassell close to irrelevant in this series.) “The biggest difference was Rondo,” Brown said. “He played a terrific game.”

When Rondo is making shots, how do you stop the Celtics? You don’t.

Then, once the third quarter started, the Cavaliers opened with three straight turnovers as the Celtics put the clamps down on defense. Just what you wanted, right, Mike Brown?

“They turned up their aggression, and that was the key to the ballgame,” the Cavs coach lamented. “It was a rough go out there.”

Emboldened now, the Celtics reverted to regular-season form, making nine of their first 11 shots while strangling the Cavaliers at the other end. Cleveland had just three assists in the quarter and shot 39 percent. James (who finished with 35 points) didn’t get a basket until a tough, contested drive in the final minute of the quarter. By that time, the 14-point Cleveland lead had turned into a double-digit Cleveland deficit. The Cavaliers never would recover.

The final math was not pretty for the Cavaliers. There were 16 turnovers and 11 assists – a death-sentence ratio. There were 13 missed free throws; Anderson Varejao and Joe Smith combined to miss seven of 10. And while there were a couple of anxious moments for the Celtics down the stretch (a missed Wally Szczerbiak three-pointer in a six-point game), they were able to salt it away at the line. Paul Pierce was 8-of-10 on free throws in the period.

But the real math is even uglier for Cleveland. They have one more chance to win in Boston, assuming they can keep the Celtics playing like clueless naïfs for one more night at the Q. But winning a Game 7 on the road – against the best team in the NBA in the regular season – is exponentially more difficult than winning a Game 5 on the road. LeBron has three Game 5 victories on his résumé. He needed a fourth – because his next Game 7 win will be his first.