Los Angeles (AFP) – LeBron James scored 33 points and made key plays late to give the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers a 106-102 victory at Indiana and a sweep of their playoff series.
The Cavaliers defeated the Pacers 4-0 in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round matchup and will next face the winner between the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.
“Once again, we just had to weather the storm,” said James. “We beat a very good team.”
In the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets got a huge boost from their bench to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder 113-109 and seize a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
James sank a 3-pointer to give Cleveland a 103-102 edge, made a steal, then missed another 3-point shot, but Kyrie Irving grabbed the rebound and Kyle Korver was fouled, hitting two free throws to stretch the Cavaliers lead to 105-102.
In the dying seconds, Indiana’s Paul George missed a 3-pointer and James grabbed the rebound. Fouled with one second remaining, he sank a free throw to create the final margin.
“Tough team,” James said of the Pacers. “We knew we had something to deal with but we locked in. We listened to our coaching schemes and stuck with the plan and got the job done.”
Irving added 28 points while Kevin Love pulled down 16 rebounds, Tristan Thompson grabbed 11 and James contributed 10 rebounds in the victory.
Lance Stephenson came off the Indiana bench to lead the Pacers with 22 points.
At Oklahoma City, Eric Gordon and Lou Williams scored 18 points each and Nene delivered a team-high 28 as the Rockets now have a chance to close out the series Tuesday at home.
Houston won despite an off night from superstar James Harden, who missed seven three-point attempts in a row and shot only 5-of-16 overall from the floor.
The Thunder can’t be so confident they will be able to score if Russell Westbrook ever hits a dry scoring patch.
Westbrook, who gets more touches per game than almost any other NBA player and often carries the Thunder on his back, finished with 35 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists.
But he had another poor shooting second half on Sunday, making only 5-of-17 from the floor in the final two quarters. In a game-two loss, he misfired on 14-of-18 shots in the fourth quarter.
Westbrook had a triple-double in the first half, making him just the second player in NBA history with three consecutive playoff triple-doubles. Wilt Chamberlain did it in four consecutive games in 1967.
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