Cavaliers drop Game 4 109-102

The Cavs are now down 3-1 against the Celtics.

Game 4 final: Boston Celtics 109, Cleveland Cavaliers 102.

Nightly Notables

With Donovan Mitchell out, Darius Garland scored 30 points and had 7 assists. Evan Mobley and Caris LeVert each added 19 points and Max Strus added 15 points.

Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 33 points.

Well, that happened

Little mistakes cost the Cavs in this game over and over again. Strus’ six fouls were all overeager. LeVert was up and down on both ends, often stacking up bad plays on both ends. Focus on the class was generally an issue for Cleveland with the team giving up 10 offensive rebounds, many of which came from not boxing out properly. And while Garland got to 30, it took him until the second quarter (when he had 11 points to get on the board.)

In the regular season or against a lesser team, the margins don’t matter if you do enough else right. Against a team like the Celtics — who, even if there are ways to beat them, are more complete than the Cavs — little mistakes are the whole game. Make too many of them and they are impossible to overcome.

Big Picture

3-1 means this series is effectively over. Yes, the Cavs have some history coming back from 3-1. Yes, it’s possible. But when the Cavs did it before, they had LeBron James. (Who was in attendance.) With Mitchell’s status for Game 5 up in the air and Jarrett Allen still out, it’s hard to see the Cavs having a real shot to come back. The question now is how many more games it will go before the season ends.

Up next: Game 5 is on Wednesday in Boston. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.