All about LeBron
He puts team on his back and carries it to 3-2 series lead with 38 points, 12 rebounds.
James won’t let Cavaliers lose, scoring 38 to push them past Bulls for 3-2 series lead.
CLEVELAND 106 CHICAGO 101
CLEVELAND — With the “Big 3” reduced to the “Banged-Up 2,” LeBron James again showed why he’s Cleveland’s one and only.
James scored 38 points Tuesday night, Kyrie Irving had 25 and the Cavaliers held off Chicago’s charge in the fourth quarter for a 106101 victory over the Bulls to take a 3-2 lead in their testy Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Showing no ill effects from a sprained left ankle, James collected 12 rebounds, six assists, three steals and three blocks and didn’t have a turnover in 41 minutes to ensure the Cavaliers will again play at home this season. The four-time NBA MVP was locked in from the start, imposing his will on a game the Cavaliers had to have. “I commend him for putting us on his back,” Irving said.
Cleveland can clinch the best-of-seven series and advance to the East finals for the first time since 2009 with a win in Game 6 Thursday in Chicago, where the teams exchanged buzzer-beating victories last weekend.
The drama wasn’t quite as high in Game 5, but it was close and it was intense.
Jimmy Butler scored 29 points and Mike Dunleavy 19 for the Bulls. Derrick Rose scored 16, 12 in the first quarter, but the star guard shot just two for 15 in the final three quarters and aggravated a shoulder “stinger” he sustained in Game 1.
Chicago was without Pau Gasol, who missed a second straight game with a hamstring injury, and played the final 10:25 without Taj Gibson, who was ejected for kicking Cleveland’s Matthew Dellavedova and could face further discipline.