Celtics Called Unserious by NBA Fans as Tatum Keys G4 Win vs. Cavs with Mitchell Out

It may not be entirely fair, but the Boston Celtics are going to be graded on a championship-or-bust curve throughout the postseason, especially against Eastern Conference competition.

And Monday was not a championship effort.

Boston still got the win with a 109-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of their second-round playoff series at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Still, it was an uninspired effort against an overmatched team that was without its star player in Donovan Mitchell because of a calf strain.

The Celtics can at least take solace in impressive performances from their stars with Jayson Tatum (33 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block), Jaylen Brown (27 points and eight rebounds) and Jrue Holiday (16 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and one block) stuffing the stat sheet.

Still, social media was not impressed by the overall game:

The parallels between this series and Boston's first-round victory over the Miami Heat were clear even before Monday's contest. While the Celtics lost Game 2 at home in each series, they quickly course corrected with wins on the road against overmatched opponents to accelerate what felt like an inevitable series result.

There was even more of a sense of inevitability when Mitchell was ruled out, but Cleveland deserves plenty of credit for putting up a fight.

It went basket-for-basket with Boston for much of the game with Max Strus catching fire from deep, Sam Merrill providing a shooting spark off the bench and Caris LeVert attacking in the lane. Only Tatum's individual dominance was enough to give the visitors a five-point lead at intermission.

And that dominance was a problem for the Cavaliers, as the five-time All-Star made up for a lackadaisical effort from his team as a whole by scoring in the lane, hitting from the outside, battling for boards and facilitating when needed.

Despite Tatum's impressive start, Cleveland managed to take the lead in the third quarter when Darius Garland found his stroke after a slow start.

Still, it was only a matter of time before the Celtics answered, and it was Brown's turn to carry the offense. Throw in Holiday playing stifling perimeter defense all while he rebounded, facilitated and hit some outside shots, and the visitors seemed to finally seize control with a double-digit lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Yet even that momentum didn't stop Boston from sleepwalking and allowing Garland to carry the Cavaliers right back into the game before Brown and Tatum made enough plays down the stretch to walk away with the win and an opportunity to close the series out when it shifts to Boston for Wednesday's Game 5.