The set-up: It wasn't a cakewalk but the Cavs won Game 4 against the Celtics, 112-99. The Celtics actually led by 10 points at the half but Cleveland shot 71 percent in the second half to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. Kyrie scored a playoff career-high 42 points, LBJ overcame four fouls in the first half to add 34 points and Love produced his fourth consecutive double-double with 17 & 17. The Celtics now need to win at home, where they lost the first two games of this series by an average of 28.5 points, to stay alive. "We're humble enough to know that we haven't played well at home, and we want to give our home crowd a better outing than we did the past two games," forward Jae Crowder told reporters. "We're right there where we want to be, we're locked in."

Cleveland: Irving tweaked an ankle in Game 4 but he didn't seem to be the least bit affected, scoring 33 of his points during an impressive 19-minute stretch. LBJ overcame early foul trouble to make 15-of-27 shots after suffering through a poor Game 3 in which he scored only 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting. As noted, Love's been brilliant, averaging 24.5 & 12.8 through four games. However, an area of concern for Cleveland has to be the fact that its bench has contributed just nine (Game 3) and seven (Game 4) points!

Boston: Game 3 hero Marcus Smart (27 points) returned to earth with a thud in Game 4, going 1 of 9 for eight points. Olynyk got the Game 4 start and had 15 points. He had 15 off the bench in Game 3, after scoring just two total points in the first two games! Crowder battled through a groin injury in Game 4 and produced 18 points and eight rebounds. He is averaging 15.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in the series. Thomas is done for the year and winning three straight is not a realistic hope for Boston.

The pick: However, the Celtics recovered from a 21-point deficit to win Game 3 in Cleveland and incredibly, had the Cavs in a 16-point hole in the second quarter of Game 4, a contest in which almost all thought the Cavs would dominate. Cleveland head coach is warning his team about looking ahead to the Warriors. "(The Celtics are), like I told you guys before, it's like we're preparing for a whole new team. Like, we didn't know what they were going to run. Isaiah (Thomas) goes down and they're running a totally different offense than we prepared for so it's been tough on us. And defensively, they're a lot better. They don't have a lot of weak links to go to, to go at." The Celtics pulled off the improbable comeback upset in Game 3 and are more than capable of at worst, taking the Cavs to the wire in this one. Take the points and make Boston a 10* play.