Cleveland Cavaliers down Bulls to reach Eastern Conference Final

Cleveland CavaliersThe Cleveland Cavaliers, once again propelled by LeBron James, took apart the Chicago Bulls on the road to progress to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. The victory marked the first time the Cavaliers will contest the Conference Final since the 2008/2009 season and the franchise is certainly in contention for the NBA championship overall.

Credit should go to David Blatt, the head coach came to Cleveland on the back of a Euroleague winning season with Maccabi Tel Aviv, but with plenty to prove in the USA still. While some may say the jury is still out on Blatt, the tactician is delivering what is expected of him on the hardwood and is bringing the first success to the Cleveland Cavaliers for over four years.

Of course, Blatt’s arrival is not the only factor in that renewed strength, the return of one LeBron James has proved pivotal. The four time NBA MVP has turned the Cavs into championship material once more, but interestingly LeBron was not his instrumental self as his team dismantled the Bulls to the score of 94-73 in Chicago. The victory gave the visitors a 4-2 series success, but James struggled with 15 points to his name for the franchise he returned home to last summer on course.

Pau Gasol was back in the Bulls fold for Game 5 and the Spaniard opened the scoring in the contest before LeBron assisted and drained a two to get the Cavaliers on the board. The teams traded buckets through a high scoring opening quarter, but at the buzzer Cleveland had opened a slender 31-33 lead. Chicago struggled in the offensive paint under the strain of a hard working Cavs defence, with the visiting franchise dominating the second quarter with a 13-25 run that made it 44-58 through halftime. The Bulls stopped the offensive potency of Cleveland in the third act, and while the hosts could only win the frame 16-15, they had stopped the away team from running away with the game. That didn’t last long though as the Cavaliers turned it on again in the fourth quarter, winning the game at a canter with a 13-21 winning frame.

The winners paid a heavy price for victory, with the Kyle Irving limping off to add to the season ending injury to Kevin Lowe earlier in the Play-offs. Matthew Dellavedova came from the bench to lead the Cavaliers with 19 points, while James may not have reached his high standards but still contributed 15 points, 9 rebounds, and 11 assists in a near triple-double. Tristan Thompson did double up with 13 points and 17 rebounds, followed by Iman Shumpert with 13 points and J.R. Smith with 12 points.

The Cavaliers rebounded 53 to Chicago’s 32, while the hosts only had two players score double digits, Jimmy Butler with 20 points and Derrick Rose with 14 points.

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