NBA GAME RECAP

Cavs sweep Hawks behind James, advance to Finals

The Sports Xchange

May 26, 2015 at 8:17 pm.

LeBron James soars for a dunk in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. (Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports)

CLEVELAND — LeBron James pulled the conference championship T-shirt over his sweaty, weary frame and turned to J.R. Smith with one simple message: “Four more.”

This is why James returned to Cleveland. The Cavaliers are back in the NBA Finals.

James scored 23 points, grabbed nine rebounds and passed for seven assists while guiding the Cavaliers past the Atlanta Hawks 118-88 Tuesday night and into the NBA Finals.

The Cavs swept the Hawks out of the Eastern Conference finals to put James into the Finals for the fifth consecutive season. Cleveland advanced to the Finals for the second time in the team’s 46-year history, the other being 2006-07, when a James-led squad was swept by the San Antonio Spurs.

James and teammate James Jones become the only NBA players to appear in five straight Finals aside from Bill Russell, Satch Sanders, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Tom Heinsohn, Frank Ramsey, Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, who were all part of the Boston Celtics’ 1960s dynasty.

Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving returned after missing two games with tendinitis in his left knee. Irving scored 16 points and passed for five assists in 23 minutes, and he now will have more than a week to rest his ailing knee before the Finals begin on June 4 against either the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets. The Western Conference champion will have home-court advantage.

This wasn’t so much a contest as it was 48 minutes of victory laps for a city that hasn’t celebrated a major sports championship in 51 years.

James’ soaring dunk from just inside the free-throw line forced the Hawks to call a timeout 90 seconds into the game. James used the break to strut down the sideline and baseline on his way back to the bench, imploring fans to stand and cheer. They did for most of the evening while guys like guard Iman Shumpert, forward Tristan Thompson and guard J.R. Smith took turns playing to the crowd at various moments over the final three quarters.

Smith had 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, Thompson had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and center Timofey Mozgov finished with 14 points and seven rebounds for the Cavs.

The lead never dropped below double figures after Cleveland pushed it to 20 in the second quarter, swelling to 31 in the fourth quarter.

It was a long, painful journey back to the top of the East following James’ departure for Miami in 2010. The Cavs celebrated more lottery victories than important game victories during his four years away. They compiled the league’s worst record during those four years, spending the time stockpiling young players and trade assets in anticipation of this moment.

James returned home last summer, the Cavs bundled some of their young talent and picks for forward Kevin Love, then withstood Love’s early exit from this postseason and the December loss of starting center Anderson Varejao to win the East without them.

Guard Jeff Teague scored 17 points, guard Kent Bazemore scored 12 and forward Paul Millsap had 16 points and 10 rebounds, but they couldn’t extend the Hawks’ season another day. By sweeping Atlanta, the Cavs eliminated the best team in the East during the regular season, but a team that seemed to peak too early. The Cavs were the opposite, winning 53 games during the regular season and saving some of their best performances — particularly defensively — for the playoffs.

Irving and Thompson were the first pieces of the rebuild, entering the league as the first and fourth overall picks in 2011. They have both played huge roles at various points of this year’s playoff run, with Thompson shining as a defender and rebounder since Love’s shoulder injury. Thompson even made an 18-footer at the first-quarter buzzer Tuesday, drawing smiles and giggles from the Cavs bench.

David Blatt, meanwhile, was still coaching in Israel 12 months ago. Now he is headed to the Finals in his first season in the NBA.

“I just try not to get involved with what I feel and what I am in all this,” Blatt said pregame. “What I’m supposed to do is help my team win. What I’m supposed to do is coach this team to the best of my abilities, and the rest of the stuff is just storyline.

“I feel lucky to be working with the great staff that I have and the great players that I have and knowing that, if we do things right, we’ve got a chance to achieve things, and we have so far. The best thing we can do is think about how and what we need to do to keep going. That’s where my mind is at.”

NOTES: Hawks G Kyle Korver will have surgery Wednesday afternoon on his right leg, although the team has yet to disclose the specific injury. He is out the rest of the postseason. … The cast of the “Entourage” movie attended Tuesday’s game. Actor Kevin Dillon missed a 3-point shot during pregame warm-ups that nearly hit Cavs G Iman Shumpert in the face. … F LeBron James acknowledged he has had trouble sleeping some nights because of the ankle, knee and back issues he is battling. “I’m OK with not being able to sleep at night because of a back or ankle or a knee or not feeling great going into an Eastern Conference game. I’ve been doing it for a while and been doing it at a high level and have been able to advance.” … James called Warriors G Steph Curry’s fall in Game 4 Monday night horrific. “I thought he lucked out by getting his hand out of there. If he would have landed all his weight onto his arm he could have actually broken his wrist or his arm,” he said.

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