All Tied Up

… and LeBron James still hasn’t broken out of his shooting funk.

Of course, the Celtics haven’t won a game outside of Suffolk County, either. And LeBron James – despite going 7-for-20 from the floor – made sure of that, throwing down one of those seven field goals with an earth-shattering dunk that punctuated the Wine and Gold’s dramatic 88-77 win.

Now, the Cavaliers and Celtics – a squad that won 21 more games than Cleveland in the regular season – are knotted at two games apiece, with the series shifting back to Boston for Game 5 on Wednesday night.

The Cavaliers have now beaten Boston eight straight times at The Q and are 8-3 all-time against the Celtics at home. And for all the talk of the Celtics’ vaunted defense, it’s been the Wine and Gold that has tightened their grip – holding Doc Rivers’ club to 38 percent shooting (27-of-70) on Monday night, their lowest field goal percentage of the postseason.

And the wear is slowly beginning to show. In his postgame presser, Doc Rivers bristled when it was suggested that LeBron was “struggling” …

“You think LeBron is struggling?!” asked Rivers, pointedly. “He had 21 points, 13 assists and six rebounds. He probably forced 15 fouls. We don’t look at that as LeBron struggling. You only look at field goal percentage, we don’t. We look at the way he’s playing his total game and he’s making plays. The Gibson threes, those threes don’t happen without LeBron James.”

And while LeBron is slowly coming out of his shooting slump, his “little brother” – Daniel Gibson – may have awakened from the funk that saw him averaging just over three shot attempts per game over the first three games of the series.

Boston had refused to leave Boobie and double-down on LeBron. But on Monday night, the sophomore from Texas found all the right spots, and as always was at the right place at the right time – canning a trey with 2:38 remaining to put the game essentially out of reach.

“I just continued to be patient,” asserted Gibson. “I didn’t let it frustrate me – the fact that I wasn’t getting a lot of looks. I also was a little more aggressive going to the basket on pick-and-roll situations, so I just waited for my open looks. I knew they were going to come; I just had to be patient and tonight, I got a lot more than I’ve been getting.”

Gibson was 5-for-9 from the field for 14 points, easily his best game of the series. Equally as impressive has been his defense against Sam Cassell – who killed the Cavaliers in the first two games of the series.

“Every game you learn something new,” said Gibson, on finding ways to guard the 14-year vet. “In Boston, he got me lifted a little bit and hit some fadeaways. You learn guys’ game when you play a series over time. I learned a little bit about his game and I’m getting better guarding him. But, he’s still a great player.”

But the biggest story of the Cavaliers’ two wins in Cleveland has been the trade deadline’s Four Horsemen – Delonte West, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak and Ben Wallace. They’ve given the Wine and Gold exactly what Danny Ferry expected of them when he made the deal in late February.

Joe Smith, in his first foray into the Second Round, was incredible again on Monday night. Over his last two games, Smith is 11-for-14 from the floor, averaging six boards per contest. Coach Mike Brown had Zydrunas Ilgauskas at the scorer’s table with just under four minutes to play, but the combination of Smith and Anderson Varejao was simply too effective.

“We felt in the two games in Boston, that their bench came with more energy than our bench,” said Smith. “So, we felt when we got here at home that, as a group, were going to either build on what the starters had done or if they start off slow, try to bring the energy that’s necessary to win this game.”

Ben Wallace has been huge defending KG, although he gave way to Anderson Varejao last night. The Wild Thing has continued to get under the Defensive Player of the Year’s skin and he was limited to a quiet 15 points.

“I’m just trying to be physical with him,” said Varejao. “I want to take away his space, make him work to catch the ball. Just be aggressive and make it hard for him."

With Anderson and Ben Wallace making life difficult for Garnett, and LeBron making Pierce work on both ends of the floor, the X-factor – defensively – has been Wally Szczerbiak. The former Miami (OH) star has made Ray Allen – who led the Celtics with 28.1 ppg against the Cavaliers during the regular season – work to get any daylight. And there hasn’t been much.

“(Allen's) a great shooter, a great scorer and you can’t give him an inch,” said Szczerbiak. “But my teammates have helped me out a ton – the big guys are great on this team. If you get beat on the dribble, you’ve got Andy back there, or Z or Ben or Joe – and they make it difficult to get a look at the basket. So I owe a lot to them.”

On Wednesday, Wally and Co. will try to do something that hasn’t been done this postseason: beat the Celtics in Boston. If they do that, they can attempt to do what many thought was unthinkable on Friday night at The Q.