James to the fore as Cavaliers sweep Pacers in play-offs
Houston Rockets put Thunder on the brink after commanding 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 play-off 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.
“Once again, we just had to weather the storm,” said James. “We beat a very good team.”
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 the Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls 104-95.
James sank a 3-pointer to give Cleveland a 103-102 edge, made a steal, then missed another 3-point shot, but Kyrie Irving grabbed the rebound and Kyle Korver was fouled, hitting two free throws to stretch the Cavaliers lead to 105-102. In the dying seconds, Indiana’s Paul George missed a 3-pointer and James grabbed the rebound. Fouled with one second remaining, he sank a free throw to create the final margin.
Different story
At Oklahoma City, Eric Gordon and Lou Williams scored 18 points each and Nene delivered a team-high 28 as the Rockets now have a chance to close out the series at home. Houston won despite an off night from superstar James Harden, who missed seven three-point attempts in a row and shot only 5-of-16 overall from the floor. It is a different story for the Thunder. They appear to be unable to score if Russell
Eastern Conference:
(All series best-of-seven) Cleveland 106 Indiana (Cleveland wins series 4-0) Boston 104 Chicago (Series tied 2-2)
Western Conference:
Houston 113 Oklahoma City 109 (Houston leads series 3-1) UtahJazz 105 LAClippers (series tied 2-2) 98 Westbrook sits on the bench or hits a dry scoring patch.
With Westbrook on the bench on Sunday, Oklahoma City were outscored 13-4 in a stretch that lasted from late.