James passes Jordan as Cavs reach finals

King James has another throne and his Cleveland Cavaliers are through to another NBA final.

LeBron James surpassed Michael Jordan for the top spot on the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring list yesterday as the Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics 135-102 to win the Eastern Conference finals 4-1. They will play the Golden State Warriors in a three-match final.

Kyrie Irving added 24 points and Kevin Love finished with 15 for the Cavs, who never trailed and led by as many as 39 points in one of their most dominating wins of the series.

James hit a three-pointer in the third quarter against the Boston Celtics to give him 29 points in the game, at that stage 5989 points in his post-season career.

Jordan scored 5987 in his postseason career in 179 games from 1985-2003.

James was 27 points behind Jordan before the game, his 212th career post-season match.

The Cavs also set an NBA record by winning their 13th consecutive series close-out opportunity.

The victory marks the seventh straight trip to the finals for James.

Avery Bradley led Boston with 23 points. The Cavaliers basically conceded the East’s top seed to the Celtics at the end of the regular season by opting to rest their starters in advance of the playoffs. But they displayed their superiority over the final two games to wrap up the series.

After allowing the Celtics to seize the early momentum in Game 4, the Cavs barely gave them the chance in Game 5.

Led by their ‘‘big three’’, Cleveland quickly built a 21-point lead in the first quarter and effortlessly cruised all the way from there to sew up the series.