GAME 7, baby.
It got close, but the Eastern Conference Finals’ underlining narrative carried through, and the home team got the win.
Led by a superhuman LeBron James performance, the Cleveland Cavaliers ran out 109-99 winners to force a do-or-die decider in Boston on Monday, May 28 (AEST).
James dropped 46 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists, and iced the game for the Cavs, keeping the Boston Celtics at bay down the stretch.
Terry Rozier’s 28 and Jaylen Brown’s 27 allowed Boston to stay within striking distance, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.
Kevin Love left the game in the first quarter with a possible concussion, after banging heads with Celtics rookie Jayson Tatum, and never returned.
But with Cleveland’s role players stepping up at home, James got the help he needed.
George Hill had 20 points, Jeff Green dropped 14 off the bench, while Larry Nance Jr. was a surprise contributor with 10 points and seven rebounds in his 21 minutes.
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The Cavaliers took their first lead thanks to a James three-pointer midway through the second quarter to go up 34-33, and never gave it back.
After trailing by as many as sixteen, Boston were able to cut it to seven points in the fourth, before back-to-back stepback triples by James over Tatum put the game out of reach.
“Greatness,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said.
“Gave it his all. We needed that, especially with Kevin going down. He delivered. He carried us home as usual.”
James played 46 out of a possible 48 minutes, and didn’t get a rest until the final minute of the third quarter.
“It feels good just to be able to play for another game,” said the four-time MVP.
“Like I always say, Game 7 is the best two words in sports.
“For us to be on the road...where we’ve had no success up to this point, we should relish the opportunity.”
Neither team has won — or really gotten close — on the road this series; but James, who averages more points than any other player in NBA history in Game 7’s will have just one aim in sight: An eighth consecutive NBA Finals.
“It’s [Game 7] not going to be pretty,” Celtics’ Marcus Smart said.
“We’ve got to come out ready to get our nose bloody and our mouth bloody. We’ve got to come out ready to fight. You’ve got to find a way, whatever it takes.”
Game 7 is Monday, May 28 (AEST).
RE-LIVE (if you can’t see the blog; click here)
LeBron James on pace for a 50-point night. He's got 25 on 9-17 from the field. But Jeff Green has stepped up in a big way, scoring nine points on 3-7 from the field. Played 18 minutes in the first half, as Kevin Love was in the back being looked at.
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com
Cavaliers forward LeBron James spoke with the media following Friday's shootaround at Cleveland Clinic Courts as the Wine & Gold prep for Game 6 against the Celtics.
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CLEVELAND -- Sometimes it’s just a basketball game. Sometimes it’s about surviving and advancing. And sometimes, it’s past, present and future rolled into one.
* Celtics-Cavaliers series coverage
That last perspective is the big-picture, all-encompassing one in play at Quicken Loans Arena Friday night for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference championship series (8:30 ET, ESPN). Normally, it’s rare that a Game 6 – without nearly the cachet of those vaunted, nail-biting Game 7s – would pack such a punch. But this is no ordinary scenario.
No ordinary win-or-go-home pivot point.
No ordinary dominant central figure.
LeBron James is what brings the context to this clash between his Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics. His is a career measured in championship rings and lifetime NBA statistical totals, yes, but also in Finals appearances, elimination-game performances and the ability to be great when greatness matters most.
Can LeBron James and the Cavaliers win Game 6 to force a Game 7?
James’ active streak of seven consecutive trips to the NBA Finals is part of the “past” mentioned up top, the train of history that James – as one of the league’s legends, even if he were to quit tomorrow – sends down the track every time he steps on a court. It’s also the one he seems least interested in, assuring fans and media every year around this time that some day, most likely “with a bottle of wine,” he’ll sit back with friends and confidantes and assess his legacy for himself.
The future? That’s the uncertainty in which James seems to revel, or at least thrive, as it relates to his whereabouts for any given season. He set that in motion too, eight years ago, when he took his prodigious talents to South Beach for a four-year crash education in “super teams” and winning. Then he did it again in 2014, boomeranging home not to his Mom’s couch in the basement but to the franchise in Cleveland where, in basketball terms, he was raised.
Four years later, James is poised to do it again. He has an option in his contract for 2018-19 that allows him either to stay in Cleveland or to leave via free agency for ... whatever suits him.
If James wants to build another team of stars and buddies, if he prefers to jump aboard a team growing with young talent already in place such as Philadelphia, if he wants to move for lifestyle and business as much as basketball this time or if he decides that being the King of northeast Ohio to oversee the franchise he presumptively will choose to purchase someday, the choice rightfully is his.
When he came back to Cleveland and led the Cavaliers to three consecutive Finals and the 2016 championship, all paperwork was stamped “Paid In Full.” He owes the basketball public in his home state or elsewhere nothing, as far as on-court achievements or striving.
James steadfastly has declined to address his summer plans whenever asked, and it’s likely they’re being formulated in real time as this 2018 postseason unspools. He shrugged off the idea that he is playing now with his previous Finals appearances in mind, too, when talking with reporters after Cleveland’s Game 5 loss in Boston Wednesday.
LeBron James discusses Game 5 and whether he was fatigued at the end.
“I've never went to any season saying, 'OK, let's have a Finals streak,’” James said. "It's just all about just win every game and it should put us in position to play for a championship. We have another opportunity on Friday to be as good as we can be, play Cavs basketball on our home floor and force a Game 7."
