The King reigns
LeBron's 35 help Cavs beat Celtics, reach NBA Finals
BOSTON— With another Game 7 victory at stake, LeBron James would not sit out.
He would not say goodbye to Cleveland again — not yet, anyway.
And he would not be denied an eighth straight trip to the NBA Finals.
The four-time league MVP scored 35 points with 15 rebounds and nine assists on Sunday night, leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to an 87-79 win over the Celtics and eliminating Boston from the Eastern Conference finals in the decisive seventh game.
"He's had a lot of gaudy games," Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said. "But I just think Game 7, in Boston, all the circumstances that surround Boston, the history ... to come here in a hostile environment: (it's) right there."
In the first close game, the lowest-scoring and the first victory for a road team in the series, James played all 48 minutes, scoring 12 of his points in the fourth quarter for his sixth straight Game 7 win. Lue used his timeouts to get his star an extra few minutes of rest when he could, and James didn't warm up at halftime to conserve his energy.
"It was asked of me tonight to play the whole game," he said. "And I just tried to figure out how I can get through it."
James played all 82 regular-season games for the first time in his career and is already at 100 for the year with at least four more to come. He tired late in Game 5, when the Celtics won their 10th straight at home this postseason.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said the plan was to wear James out.