LeBron leads Cavs in return to the NBA Finals for the first time in 8 years
It’s still hard to believe that the Cleveland Cavaliers were under .500 basketball four months ago. However, the team quickly turned it around following trade acquisitions of Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. With LeBron James taking his two week vacation from all team-related activities in the middle of the season to re-outlining his plan for the season, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love helped lead the team to only 9 more loses for the entire season – following the middle of January. Playing with a sense of desperation throughout the post-season, the Cavs were looking to close out their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Atlanta Hawks.
To their opponents credit, they were without wing-players Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha due to injuries, so Atlanta had extremely lack of depth against the surging Cleveland team. In game three, the team saw their first legit scare of the series, which ironically was when team captain Al Horford was ejected from the night, following an altercation with Matthew Dellavedova. LeBron would hit a clutch three and the team’s magic would carry on into their game closer tonight, scoring 32 points in the opening quarter to take a double digit lead and never look back.
Kyrie, who had missed the last two games with a knee injury, returned to the court and scored 16 points in twenty-two minutes of action. With the exception of Iman Shumpert, who was cold the entire night at 1-8 from the field, the rest of the core 7-player collective finished in double digit scoring. Since returning back home to Ohio, the KING’s goal has been bringing the first ever NBA Championship to the city of Cleveland and will have a shot at doing so. James is obviously a different player in comparison to 2007, after back-to-back championships in South Beach, as this marks his fifth straight NBA Finals appearance and second with the Cavaliers.
They will now await the winner of the Western Conference Finals match-up between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors. Cleveland split the series match-up with Warriors (LeBron didn’t play in loss) and lost both games to the Rockets in the regular season. Game 1 of the NBA Finals is locked for a June 4th start and the Kings of the East will have 8 days to rest up for their biggest task to date. Win or GO HOME!
FINAL: CLE 118 | ATL 88