LeBron does the heavy lifting
LEBRON James 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’ 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 yesterday — may be his greatest achievement. The 33-year-old fourtime NBA MVP, who struggled with fatigue in the series, played all 48 minutes of the game and had 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’ 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 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 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’ domination 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 finals.
In previous years with the Cavs, James had All-Star Kyrie Irving by his side and with the Heat he was a member of the ‘Big 3’ with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
The Cavs shook up their squad mid-season with trades, but that left James with a ragtag group including untested former Los Angeles Lakers duo Larry Nance Jr and Jordan Clarkson and inconsistent veterans Jeff Green, JR Smith, Tristan Thompson, George Hill and Kyle Korver. AAP