Thursday night's matchup at TD Garden in Boston saw the Boston Celtics host the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of ther Eastern conference finals series. With Cleveland leading the series 3-1, it was a "win or go home" situation for the Boston Celtics as they wanted to keep their season alive. The Cavaliers on the other hand, were looking to seal the deal in this series as soon as possible and advance to their third straight NBA finals. It was a sellout crowd of almost 19,000 hyped fans who were hoping their Celtics could force a Game 6 on the road.
They would have to do so without the services of their leading scorer and starting point guard Isaiah Thomas, who is out for the remainder of the season due to hip injury.
Wire to wire victory for the Cavs
Boston never led in this game. Cleveland opened up the game with an early 15-5 lead in the first quarter, and they had a 43-27 lead after the first 12 minutes of action. Cleveland shot 64% in the opening quarter and connected on six of their 11 three-point attempts in the period. The 43 points Cavaliers scored in the first quarter set a team postseason record for a quarter. Midway through the second quarter the Cavaliers were up by 23 points (59-36) and at halftime the score was 75-57 for Tyronn Lue's squad.
They outscored Boston 34-17 in a huge third quarter and pulled away in this one. Heading into the fourth quarter Cleveland held a convincing 109-74 lead. The teams went back-and-forth in the final period of the game and Cavaliers ended up winning it in a blowout fashion 135-102. The Cavs shot 19-for-41 from behind the arc and 20-for-24 from the free-throw line.
They finished the game with 24 team assists and forced the Celtics into 18 turnovers.
The Celtics never led at home in this series, and they finished this year's playoffs having made at least 10 three-pointers in 16 of their 18 games.
LeBron James with 35 points
Cleveland had four players scoring at least 14 points in Thursday's game.
On a night when he needed 28 points to pass Michael Jordan as the all-time playoff scoring leader, LeBron James scored 35 points on 13-for-18 shooting. He added eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals. Kyrie Irving contributed with 24 points and seven assists while Kevin Love scored 15 and pulled down 11 rebounds.
For the shorthanded Celtics, it was Avery Bradley who led them in scoring in their last game of the season. Bradley scored 23 points and grabbed four rebounds. Gerald Green added 14 points off the bench while Jae Crowder finished with 11 points and six rebounds.
The Cavaliers won the series 4-1 and advance to the NBA finals to face the Golden State Warriors. Game 1 of this year's NBA finals is set for next Thursday night at Oracle Arena.
