Celtics Drop Second Straight, Series Now Tied

After heading to Cleveland up two games to nothing and in complete control of their best-of-seven series against the Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics now head back home knotted at two games apiece. 

That's thanks in part to a 111-102 Cavalier victory, Monday night.

After tearing up the C's in a dominant win Saturday night in Game 3, the Cavs continued their hot home play to tie the series up.

Similar to Game 3, it was all about the first quarter and Cleveland getting off to an extremely hot start. Shooting a cool 60 percent from the floor, in the opening frame, the Cavs jumped out to a 34-18 lead after one.

Boston actually won each of the next three quarters, but by a total of just seven points, which never allowed them to truly chip into Cleveland early lead.

LeBron James, once again, paced the way for the Cavs, scoring a game-high 44 points on 17 of 28 shooting. It was James' second 40 point game of the series and sixth of this postseason.

Coupling that effort with solid play from his contributing teammates, including a 14-point night from sharp shooting Kyle Korver, the Cavs just became too much for Boston to handle.

The C's did score well with all five starters in double digits and four posting at least 15 points, but they missed some easy opportunities near the basket and their defense was extremely underwhelming.

Continually caught in poor switches, the C's had no match for James on the night and didn't do a great job of stopping anyone else, for that matter.

The series will now shift back to the TD Garden, a place the Celtics have performed much better at throughout this postseason. With it looking less than likely that Boston will be able to win in Cleveland, the C's will have to come out with a real purpose Wednesday night.

In a series that started so promising for the the young and short-handed Celtics, things have turned bleak and Game 7 seems to be looming.