LeBron James leads Cleveland to another NBA Finals | The Triangle

LeBron James leads Cleveland to another NBA Finals

Photograph courtesy of Leah Klafczynski/Akron Beacon Journal/TNS Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James does a handshake with teammate J.R. Smith. James led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals after a seven-game series with the Boston Celtics. The Cavaliers will need the team to step up against the Golden State Warriors in the finals. (Photograph courtesy of Leah Klafczynski/Akron Beacon Journal/TNS)

In spite of being the underdogs, the Cleveland Cavaliers are the Eastern Conference Champions. LeBron James dominated the series and led the Cavs to another title. This is the eighth straight finals that LeBron has attended, whether he was a part of the Cavs or the Miami Heat. This time, he did so with the help of a slightly different team, and got the same result.

Game 6 started off pretty close. The two teams were within one point of each other during the first quarter. The Boston Celtics tried to take advantage of this by scoring some go ahead baskets. Marcus Smart took a pass from Al Horford and started to drive to the basket. However, Kyle Korver was right there to block it. At the last second, Smart threw the ball over his shoulder to Jaylen Brown, who was unblocked and made the three. This gave the Celtics a four-point advantage.

However, this lead did not last long, as the Cavs came back in the second quarter. Towards the beginning of the quarter, the Cavs had a six-point lead and possession of the ball. LeBron dribbled the ball near half court and threw a perfect line drive to Jeff Green, who drove past Aron Baynes for the dunk.

Nearing the middle of the third quarter, the Cavs had nearly a 20-point lead to the Celtics. Boston tried to cut this lead with some athletic plays by Jayson Tatum. At one point, Tatum took a pass and started to drive to the basket, but stumbled. He kept his feet and made an amazing layup, while almost falling over J.R. Smith.

The Cavs kept this lead going into the fourth quarter, and towards the end, the domination by the Cavs could not be stopped. With less than two minutes remaining, LeBron sidestepped and hit a three to keep the lead at 20. By the end, the lead was too large and the Cavs won, 109-99.

LeBron had a monstrous game, with a double-double of 46 points and 11 rebounds. George Hill came in next with 20 points. The Celtics also played very well, with Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown having 28 and 27 points, respectively.

Game 7 was the deciding game, and it did not disappoint. This time, the Celtics came out to an early lead in the first quarter. A step back jumper by Jayson Tatum increased their lead to seven midway through the first quarter. This lead slowly rose to 10 points, which meant the Cavs had some work to do if they wanted to win. In the process of doing so, Kyle Korver was dribbling the ball near the three point line when he threw a laser to LeBron who drove for the easy dunk.

By the start of the fourth quarter, the Cavs had caught up with the Celtics and now had a one-point lead. A beautiful pass from Smart to Horford, who threw down a dunk, gave the Celtics a one-point lead. However, this was not enough. The Cavs came right back and got a four-point lead in the next five minutes due to a bank shot from LeBron. The Celtics tried to come back with a fantastic dunk by Jayson Tatum over LeBron himself, but it was not enough, as the Cavs won 87-79. LeBron had another great night with yet another double-double with 35 points and 15 rebounds, while Jeff Green also had 19 points. The Celtics didn’t do so badly themselves, with Tatum scoring 24 points and Horford with 17.

The Cavs will now move on to play the Golden State Warriors, who have been to the last three finals and have won two of them. The Cavs will look to avenge their losses to GSW from 2015 and 2017 in LeBron’s eighth straight final.