Celtics look to bounce back

After getting routed by the Cavaliers Saturday, the Celts look to regain the momentum in Game 4 Monday night.

CLEVELAND — Kicked in the teeth Saturday in Game 3 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals, Boston is ready to get back up and start swinging.

That was the tone Sunday afternoon during a shootaround after Cleveland handed the Celtics their worst loss of the postseason in a 116-86 contest at Quicken Loans Arena the night before.

“It’s difficult to win on the road,” Al Horford said as the Celtics prepared for Game 4 Monday night at the Q (8:30, ESPN). “We know that. But I think that when you don’t do those little things on the defensive end, they will cost you, and Cleveland is too good of a team, and they exposed us to the point that they just had their way yesterday. I think it’s just a reminder for our group, it doesn’t matter how things were going before, we need to be able to have that same level of focus every game.”

Horford should know after logging postseason lows in points (7), shots attempted (4) and shots made (2) in 30 minutes with Tristan Thompson primarily guarding him.

By no means was Horford at fault for the loss as Boston had a rare collective bad game.

“I definitely think it was a reminder for us because when we watched it, I think we were frustrated with ourselves more than anything,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said. “But we go back tomorrow, I think we have a lot of hindsight thinking that we can come in and dominate this thing. We’ve just got to come out and play the way we’re supposed to and put our signature on it.”

Perhaps one of the most alarming things about Game 3 was how efficient the “non-Brons” were for the Cavaliers.

LeBron James still led all scorers with 27 points, but did so by taking only 12 shots. He also dished out 12 assists.

The Cavaliers hit 17-of-34 3-pointers and had scoring from everywhere.

In Games 1 and 2, James’ supporting cast scored 68 and 52 points, respectively. In Game 3, they scored 89. What’s more, James’ usage percentage was only 23.2 percent compared to 34.1 and 46.7 in Games 1 and 2.

“That’s what separates the top tier of guys to ever play the game,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said. “But the guys around him are good players and they’ve been there, done that on a high level for a long time, obviously starting with Kevin [Love] and J.R. [Smith] and Tristan Thompson and George Hill.

“These guys have played a lot of meaningful games — [Kyle] Korver — in this Eastern Conference finals or the (NBA) Finals. And I think that at the end of the day, we’ve got to be a lot better on all of them. Everybody is going to start with LeBron, and we have to, too. But we’ve got to do a better job on all those guys.”

A team that went 28-13 on the road in the regular season, the Celtics are 1-5 away from TD Garden in the playoffs, while Cleveland is 6-1 at “The Q.”

“I think that at home, you have your home crowd behind you,” Horford said. “You have a comfort level about you. And on the road, literally it’s just you against everybody else.

“That was something that was different, and it takes a while for you to get used to and understand how well you have to play on the road. You have to be able to do all the little things in order to have a chance. Last night we had a lot of breakdown, so we didn’t even give ourselves a chance to win.”

The chance comes in earnest Monday night. A loss in Game 4 makes it a three-game series with arguably the best player in the game on the other side in James.

“That team we saw yesterday, I’m 100 percent sure it won’t be the same team on Monday,” Boston forward Marcus Morris said. “After watching film, we did a lot of things that caused us to be in the position that we’re in.”