Cavaliers' supporting cast the difference in Game 6 vs Celtics

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CLEVELAND – LeBron James spent most of Friday night’s Game 6 matchup doing what LeBron James does all the time it seems – dominate games. 

But as good as he was, he’s not the reason the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season remains alive following a 109-99 win over Boston to stave off playoff elimination. 

It was his supporting cast who delivered a collective superstar performance that catapulted Cleveland to a victory to tie the series that forces a winner-take-all Game 7 at Boston on Sunday night. 

Making the victory even more impressive was how the Cavs responded after losing Kevin Love (concussion testing) just minutes into the first quarter.

“I think when you lose an All-Star like Kevin and our second go-to guy, pivotal part of what we try to do, and when he goes down and then you help your brother up, that's what they did,” said Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue. “Kevin left the game. He didn't come back, and guys got together and they played. They played for Kevin. They played for each other and were able to get the win.”

Said Boston’s Brad Stevens: “Those guys all reacted very effectively. Jeff Green was great tonight. (Kyle) Korver came in and made some shots and did what he does. George Hill was tremendous. Other guys picked up the slack for him being out.”

Hill, who has shown the ability to dominate stretches of play at home and totally disappear on the road, had 20 points for Cleveland. 

And Green, who replaced Love in the first quarter, had 14 points. 

Larry Nance Jr. didn’t miss a shot, scoring 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting to go with seven rebounds and two steals in 22 minutes. 

Cleveland didn’t go deep into their bench, but those who saw action made a difference; the kind of difference that they will need to make on Sunday if the Cavs are to have a shot at doing what no team has done in the postseason – beat Boston at the TD Garden. 

It’s pretty much a given that LeBron James will play well on Sunday. 

But as we’ve seen in this series, that’s not going to be enough to knock off Boston. 

“We as role guys have to step up and play,” Hill said. “It's Game 7, it's an elimination game. We can't focus on what he's doing. He's going to play his game. He's going to do what he does. We have to take it upon ourselves, be ready to play from the jump ball and give it all we've got out there. We can't focus on sitting in the backseat waiting on him to insert us into the offense. We have to go get it.”

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