On Thursday night, the Boston Celtics had a "must-win" Game 5 as they faced elimination from the NBA Playoffs at home. Unfortunately, the Cleveland Cavaliers were awoken several games ago with the shocking loss in Cleveland. That fueled the fire in Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and the Cavs to take control and close out the series in the next two. Game 5 was a "search and destroy" mission by Cleveland as they annihilated their opponents 135-102. Here's a look at how the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated Boston to move on to the 2017 NBA Finals.

How the Cavs won

The Cavaliers came into tonight's game with no doubt that they were looking to get out of the Eastern Conference Finals. After the first quarter, it was a 43-27 lead for the reigning champions. At halftime, they were 75-57. The third quarter saw Cleveland keep up the attack, outscoring the home team 34-17. Basically, it was starting to finish dominating performance for LeBron and company.

Leading the way in tonight's Game 5 for the Cleveland Cavs was "The King" LeBron James. He finished with 35 points on 13-for-18 shooting that included 4-for-7 from three-point range. James also dished out eight assists and pulled down eight boards in the win. His teammate Kyrie Irving added 24 points and seven assists, while Kevin Love had another double-double performance of 15 points and 11 assists.

The Cavaliers shot a blazing hot 56.5 percent for the game on 48-for-85 field goal shooting. The Celtics shot just 43 percent and got 23 points from Avery Bradley. After that, there weren't many other players contributing. Gerald Green had 14 points off the bench, while Jae Crowder had 11 and Terry Rozier finished with 10 points.

What's up next

The Boston Celtics are officially out of the playoffs. They'll focus on the upcoming NBA Draft where they'll have the No. 1 overall pick. Rumors have suggested they will take either Washington's Markelle Fultz or UCLA's Lonzo Ball with that choice. In addition, there's been talk that the team may go after another All-Star to help them out.

Some of the names that have popped up have included Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Gordon Hayward.

As for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the defending NBA Champions are in the NBA Finals. This marks their third-straight year there, and they'll take on the Golden State Warriors for the third-straight time. Can LeBron James and company overcome the four All-Star players on Golden State? The Warriors have been resting and preparing so it should be interesting to see how the Cavs fare against this 12-0 team which now features Kevin Durant in the Finals.
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