Cavs sweep Pacers, Rockets take 3-1 lead

Lebron James scored 33 points and made key plays late on Sunday to give the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers a 106-102 victory at Indiana and a sweep of their playoff series. The Cavaliers defeated the Pacers 4-0 in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round matchup and will next face the winner between the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.

In the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets got a huge boost from their bench to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder 113-109 and seize a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Over in the Eastern Conference, Isaiah Thomas is playing with a heavy heart due to the recent death of his sister but he still managed to score 33 points as ago Bulls 104-95.

In Salt Lake City, Rudy Gober returned from injury to deliver 15 points and 13 rebounds as the Utah Jazz beat the Los Angeles Clippers 105-98 to even the series at 2-2.

RUSSIAN HEPTATHLETE STRIPPED OF BRONZE

Russian Olympic heptath lete Tatiana Chernova was stripped of her 2008 Beijing Games bronze medal on Monday after she tested positive to banned substances in re-tests of her sam ple. Chernova’s 2008 sample tested positive for anabolic ster oid turinabol as did the sample from the 2012 Olympics of fellow Russian Maksim Dyldin, who was fifth with the 4x400m relay team at the Games in London.

Cheronova initially finished fourth but was upgraded to bronze after Ukraine’s Liudmyla