LeBron James pulls down a rebound in traffic during the Celtics’ exhibition game last night against the Cavaliers at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

PROVIDENCE — For basketball fans like Dave Lewis of East Greenwich, a chance to see the Boston Celtics up close and personal play the Cleveland Cavaliers in a preseason contest last night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center was the chance of a lifetime.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and my son,” Lewis said. “We never get a chance to go up to Boston to see the Celtics. We’ll remember this forever.”

Fans lined up on the sidelines two-by-two to snap pictures of the defending world champions, and of Cleveland superstar LeBron James. One wave of fans would run up on the sidelines underneath the basket to snap photos until the Dunkin’ Donuts security guards ushered them back to their seats, and then during timeouts, another wave would follow.

Many of them got to within five feet of their beloved superstars. And to top it all off, they got to see a thriller, with Boston rallying from an 82-75 fourth quarter deficit to survive, 96-94.

After rookie Bill Walker knocked down one of two free throws to tie the game at 94-94 with 1:14 left, Cleveland center Lorenzen Wright was called for an over-the-back violation on Boston’s Leon Powe (8 points, 4 rebounds), putting him on the free throw line with 13.6 seconds left.

Powe knocked down both free throws and Walker blocked a Jawad Williams four-foot jumper at the buzzer to seal the win for the Celtics.

The fans that packed the Dunk didn’t get to see Boston’s Big Three play for very long. And those fans that got to the arena late might not have seen them play at all. Paul Pierce (8 points, 2 rebounds), Kevin Garnett (4 points, 2 rebounds), and Ray Allen (5 points, 2 assists) only played in the first quarter and all of them played less than 10 minutes.

James, meanwhile, with the help of former Celtic Wally Szczerbiak who scored all of his 13 points in the first half, helped Cleveland build a 55-50 lead by halftime by scoring 15 points in 13:27 in the first half.

He did not play in the second half.

It wasn’t a big surprise that Boston’s Big Three didn’t play that much. The regular season doesn’t start until Oct. 28, and the Celtics have a lot of young players that need NBA seasoning, including rookies Patrick O’Bryant (12 points, 5 rebounds), who started in place of the recovering and absent Kendrick Perkins (shoulder), Walker (10 points, 6 rebounds) and J.R. Giddens (4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists).

“I like what he does on the floor for us and I think he’s going to be a good player,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said of Walker.

Rivers also said that he was also looking for some improvement from forward Glen Davis, who, Rivers said, was the only Celtic to not improve from the first day of training camp to now.

Davis, however, fouled out of the game with 3:32 remaining in the third quarter after scoring six points on 2-for-3 shooting from the floor with three turnovers. He has eight turnovers in the Celtics two preseason games.

Boston guard Tony Allen was a big reason why the Celtics were able to rally. He scored a game-high 25 points and did a good job running the offense with Eddie House (10 points, 3 assists) on Boston’s second unit.

“I am just trying to stay within my means with ball movement, defense, attack when it’s open and shoot the open shot,” Allen said.

Along with Szczerbiak and James, Zydrunas Ilgauskas (12 points), and Mo Williams (10 points, 7 assists) also played well for Cleveland.

Cleveland and Boston are playing a bit of role reversal this season, Rivers said.

“Last year we felt that we were chasing Cleveland all year because they were the team that represented the East [in the 2007 NBA Finals] and this year they will be chasing us and everybody else will too,” Rivers said.

Last night was the first time since 1999 that the Boston Celtics played at the Dunkin Donuts Center.Celtics

96

Cavaliers

94

rlee@projo.com