Cavaliers return to Finals in rout
TORONTO — LeBron James scored 33 points, Kevin Love had 20 points and 12 rebounds and the Cleveland Cavaliers advanced to their second NBA Finals in a row by beating the Toronto Raptors, 113-87, Friday night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
It’s the third Finals appearance in team history for the Cavaliers. Cleveland lost to Golden State in six games a year ago and got swept by San Antonio in 2007. For James, it’s his sixth consecutive trip to the Finals, including four with Miami. He broke the 30point barrier for the first time this postseason and finished with 11 rebounds and six assists.
Kyrie Irving had 30 points and J.R. Smith had 15 for the Cavaliers, who will face the winner of the Golden State-Oklahoma City series.
Cleveland would open at home against the Thunder but would be on the road against the 73-win Warriors, who trail 3-2 against Oklahoma City heading into tonight for Game 6.
The Cavaliers will be seeking to end Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought, the longest by any city with at least three professional teams. No Cleveland team has won it all since the Browns dominated Baltimore, 27-0, to win the NFL championship in 1964.
Kyle Lowry scored 35 points and DeMar DeRozan had 20 as the deepest playoff run in Raptors team history ended, much to the disappointment of a sellout crowd of 20,605 dressed in red and white T-shirts that formed a maple leaf pattern on either side of the court. Fans stood and cheered “Let’s go, Raptors! Let’s go, Raptors!” throughout most of the final three minutes.
Toronto prolonged the series with back-to-back home wins in Games 3 and 4 but never mounted much of a challenge to the conference champions in Game 6, falling behind by 21 in the third quarter.
The Cavaliers came in 0-4 at Air Canada Centre counting the regular season and playoffs, but looked much more like the team that handed the Raptors a trio of lopsided losses in Cleveland this series.
The Raptors trailed, 8878, on a jumper by DeRozan with 10:23 remaining but James scored six points in a 14-3 run that gave the Cavaliers a 102-81 lead with about 6 minutes left.
James scored 14 in the first and five of Cleveland’s nine field goals were from long range as the Cavaliers led, 31-25, after one.
After video review, the officials waved off a basket by Biyombo with 3:18 left in the period and gave him a flagrant foul for knocking down Love.
Tempers flared again early in the second when Richard Jefferson reacted angrily to catching an elbow from Jonas Valanciunas as the two battled for a rebound. Patrick Patterson came over and shoved Jefferson out of the way. Both Patterson and Jefferson were given technical fouls.
Cleveland made five more 3-pointers in the second and outscored Toronto, 9-3, over the final 71 seconds to lead 55-41 at halftime. The Cavaliers made 10 of 15 3point attempts in the first half, while Toronto was 2 of 12.
The Cavaliers led, 78-57, after a 3 by Love at 3:53 of the third but Lowry scored 15 points as Toronto closed the quarter with a 17-8 run, cutting it to 86-74.