LeBron gets young Cavs over the line

LEBRON James has carried his inexperienced and injury-hit Cleveland Cavaliers to victory over the Boston Celtics to claim the NBA Eastern Conference title and move on to play for the championship.

James’s heroics have become common during his 15 years in the NBA, but this season’s playoff run — capped by eliminating the Celtics with a 87-79 game-seven win in a hostile Boston arena on Sunday — may be his greatest achievement.

The 33-year-old four-time NBA MVP, who struggled with fatigue in the series, played all 48 minutes of the game for 35 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists.

The Cavs will face the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets for the title and it will mark James’s eighth consecutive trip to the finals.

“I’m trying to squeeze this orange until there is no more juice left,” an emotional James said. “It is a heck of an accomplishment for our ball club.”

It was the Celtics’ first loss at home in this year’s playoffs and the Cavs appeared vulnerable with their All-Star forward Kevin Love out with a concussion suffered in Friday’s game six.

Australia’s Aron Baynes was Boston’s starting centre and dominated the smaller Cavs when he was on the court, but spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench. The Queenslander had three points and five rebounds from 18 minutes. The win continues James’s domina- tion of the Eastern Conference, with the perennial All-Star taking the Cavs or the Miami Heat to the finals as the East champion eight consecutive years.

Only Bill Russell (10), Tom Heinsohn (nine) and Sam Jones (nine) have made more consecutive NBA finals appearances.

“You get all of the doubters and people who have never stepped into an arena, who have never played basketball, who never put on a tank top and shorts, who have never played anything organised, always want to try to kill my teammates,” James said. “It’s unfair to them.”

The Celtics shot a poor 34 per cent to Cavs’ 46 per cent.

Celtics’ rookie Jayson Tatum had 24 points.