The Dean Wade Cavs need showed up in thrilling win over Celtics

Behind Wade’s fourth-quarter heroics, the Cavs rallied from 22 points down, the fourth-largest comeback in franchise history, to shock the league-leading Celtics and snap their NBA-high 11-game winning streak in front of a sellout crowd that included two special guests — Jason and Travis Kelce.

The Kelce brothers, avid Cavs fans from Cleveland Heights, were sitting courtside and at times were the team’s biggest cheerleaders. During big moments or timeouts, the brothers attempted to rile up the crowd, and as Cleveland made its rally, Travis, the Kansas City Chiefs star tight end, stood to his feet and implored the fans to rise with him. That spark from Kelce was the catalyst for Wade, a diehard Chiefs fan, and the Cavs needed to carry them to victory.

“We’ve been there before, this team and organization have, so it’s nothing that we weren’t used to,” Garland said of the comeback win. “This group is relentless and we don’t back down from nobody. When we were down 22, we just told ourselves we got to keep fighting and you guys saw the results.”

Cleveland fought all night despite missing so many key players, punching up at a star-studded Boston squad. The Celtics, coming off a 52-point blowout of the Golden State Warriors, were led by MVP candidate Jayson Tatum’s 26 points. Joining Tatum in the damage were Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Jrue Holiday.

Just three minutes into the final quarter, Boston had a game-high 22-point lead and it felt reasonable for Cleveland to pack things up and get ready for Wednesday’s matchup against the Atlanta Hawks. Instead, the Cavs dug deep and never gave up and behind Wade found a way to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.

“It is just not our guys’ nature to give up,” Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Obviously, we’ve been through situations where we’ve been shorthanded, we’ve been down and it seems like every single time it happens, somebody else finds a way to step up and help us win. Our guys won’t quit. The momentum got going, the crowd got going and shots started falling.

“It’s a great win. There’s no doubt about it. Again, how we got it to be down and to be able to come back and win it, it’s a huge win for us. I think it’s a confidence boost for our guys to understand what they’re capable of and what they can do. I don’t really get into signature wins, but it’s definitely a win that you can look back on and you can gain confidence and belief in.”

Although Wade had a career-best night, which he shared he’s never experienced since high school, this is the player the Cavs need him to be every game. Cleveland big man Jarrett Allen shared that it’s who he and his teammates always wanted him to be and, looking ahead, this game against Boston could be the catalyst Wade needs to become a difference-maker come playoff time.