LeBron James Heaps Praise On Kyle Korver After Cavaliers Level Series

LeBron James had nothing but praise for teammate Kyle Korver as the duo helped the Cleveland Cavaliers level their Eastern Conference Final series with the Boston Celtics at 2-2 Monday night.

Trailing 2-1 in the series, the Cavaliers had a dominant first half performance that saw them take a 68-51 lead at halftime. The home side were able to hold on to that lead despite a late Celtics comeback as they won Game 4 with a 111-102 victory and will now head to the TD Garden in Boston for Game 5.

"Obviously, we were a lot better defensively," James told reporters after the game. "Flying around, making them take contested shots, making them make the extra pass and still being able to fly around."

"Our communication level has been up, obviously in the last two games. As loud as it is in the Garden, we got to transfer that energy and that communication in Game 5 in order for us to be better than we were in Game 1 and 2," he added.

James delivered another impressive performance as his 44 points was his sixth 40-point game of the postseason but Korver also played a big role in the Cavs winning.

Like in Game 3, the 37-year-old finished the game with 14 points as he made crucial three-point shots while also playing solid defense on Celtics guard Jaylen Brown and James praised Korver's performance on the night as well as his overall work ethic.

"I love Kyle ever since we made the trade to get him here. I had no idea how Griff [former Cavs GM David Griffin] was able to pull that off still to this day," James added. "He's just a true professional, there's not many of us '03 class guys still around and it feels like we're just cut from a different cloth because we've been around for so long and we have this work ethic."

"You see him every single day putting the work in, putting his mind, his body into it. It's not about his age, he's always just keeping his body in the right position especially in tonight's game. I mean he's guarding...how old is Jaylen Brown? 21? He's guarding Jaylen Brown, one of the most athletic wings that we have in our league is 21-years-old. Jaylen can probably fall on the ground 10 times and probably spring up like he never fell."

"I don't really like Kyle falling too much like that, I got to keep his body as fresh as possible but listen, he's doing whatever it takes to help us win with the blocks, the strips and obviously his shot-making is very key for our team as well but it's just the intangibles that he's doing for us defensively that has put him in another position to be on the floor," James said.

Game 5 takes place Wednesday night and should the series go the distance, the Celtics will have home-court advantage in Game 7.