The NBA’s most important question became clearer as the Boston Celtics’ win streak grew and their hold on the league’s best record became stronger: can anyone beat them? The Cleveland Cavaliers gave us an answer, if only for one night. In their last game of the season, the Cavaliers, who are one of the best stories in the East, went on a huge 32-6 run in the fourth quarter to shock the NBA’s best team and end their 11-game win streak. The shocking ending included a call against Jayson Tatum that was later overturned at the end of regulation.

Tatum had a great game for Boston with 26 points, and Jaylen Brown scored 21 points even though he had a slow first half. Kristaps Porzingis caused a lot of trouble for Cleveland’s frontcourt by scoring 24 points, blocking three shots, and stealing two balls. Strangely enough, though, Cleveland forward Dean Wade was the star of the night. He scored 20 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to help the Cavaliers make a huge comeback. Allen scored 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Cavaliers.

The Golden State Warriors made the strange choice to leave Brown open two days ago. This evening, Brown looked just as ready to shoot, but his shots didn’t go in. He tried four three-pointers in the first four minutes but only made one. He had a tough time hitting and went 2 for 8 in the first quarter. It doesn’t look like it from the Celtics’ offence, though. Tatum (13 points) and Porzingis (10 points) got them off to a great start as they scored 33 points in the first quarter, including a 14-0 run. They had an eight-point lead going into the second, 33-25.

One good sign for the Celtics was how well they protected the basket against Cleveland’s huge double-big frontcourt. Allen had a pretty good start, scoring 13 points in the first half, which was the team high. Mobley, on the other hand, had a tough half, scoring nothing (0-6 FG), with Luke Kornet blocking one of his shots at the basket. Garland also had a hard time getting the Boston defence to move. He blocked Sam Hauser’s three-point shot that was on the highlight reel, but he only made 2 out of 9 shots from the field overall.

Tatum kept up his early attack, making almost all of his shots (7-of-9 FG, 5-of-6 3PT) to make up for Brown’s poor shooting (4-of-13 FG). The Celtics’ lead grew to over 10 points and stayed that way for most of the quarter, even though the Cavaliers defended with their ears back. Even though Boston only made 42% of its shots from the field, it was still 10% better than Cleveland and had a 55-45 lead at halfway.

At the start of the second half, the Cavaliers got cocky. They kept up their tough defence, and when those stops gave them chances on the other end of the court, they started to make the most of them. In the beginning of the third quarter, Cleveland got as close to the Celtics’ lead as four points. The Cavaliers couldn’t fully take control of the game because Boston’s offence kept going strong, but there wasn’t much room for error in this game anymore.

They did for a short time. As the third quarter came to a close, the Celtics turned things around. Derrick White made a hilarious and-one layup while losing his balance and falling in the paint. This added to Boston’s quick 10-0 run in the last few minutes. Isaac Okoro of Cleveland stopped the run with a layup, but Porzingis and Brown answered with three-pointers. Brown’s was called a four-point play at first, but was overturned on appeal. 

In the last quarter, Payton Pritchard scored the first point by lob passing the ball to Kornet, who scored an alley-oop slam. But the Cavaliers weren’t going to give up just yet. Through the middle of the quarter, they went on a 14-2 run that quickly erased Boston’s lead. It was just under six minutes left in the game when they got back within ten points. A few seconds later, two three-pointers by Dean Wade pulled them within three with just over four minutes left. The Celtics’ coach, Joe Mazzulla, called a break. He had to defend against a Cleveland offence that was on fire and a loud crowd at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

After the timeout, Porzingis made a tough post-up shot to give Boston a two-point lead again, but he fouled Allen on the other end, giving Boston the ball back at the free throw line. The Celtics had the next chance, but couldn’t make it. Then the Cavaliers struck again—a Georges Niang three-pointer with just over three minutes left tied the game at 99 points apiece. In the blink of an eye, the comeback was complete. Wade made his sixth triple of the night to put Cleveland ahead with 2:34 left in regulation, making their already incredible 23-4 run even longer.

Once Garland made two free throws, the Celtics finally scored, with Jrue Holiday making a layup that cut the lead to two. The Celtics had two chances to tie the game when Garland turned the ball over. On the second chance, Porzingis got a shooting foul from Garland and made the three-point shot, putting the Celtics back ahead by one point with 36 seconds left.

The last part was really crazy. With 19 seconds left, Wade drove through the Boston defence and sank a dunk. It was his 20th point in the fourth quarter. On the last play of the game, Tatum got a clean look at Garland and attempted a fadeaway two-point jumper. The shot missed, but Tatum was called for a foul, which gave him a chance to win the game with 0.1 seconds left. Brown would have made a four-point play at the end of the third, but Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff won the challenge and used it to call the play back. The officials overturned the call, saying that Tatum made the first impact. The Celtics ran out of time on a final jump ball.

Next, the Celtics will go on the road for another big national TV game. At 10 PM EST on TNT, they will play the reigning champion Denver Nuggets.