The Cavaliers Survive An Ugly Game 7 In Boston To Reach A Fourth Straight NBA Finals

The first six games of the Eastern Conference Finals all went to the home team by lopsided margins, but in Game 7, the Celtics, who had shot the lights out in the TD Garden all postseason went ice cold.

Boston shot a dismal 34.1 percent from the field and an unfathomable 7-of-39 from three-point range (17.9 percent), missing a number of open looks that could have been the difference in what eventually ended up being an 87-79 Cavs win. The Cavaliers weren’t much better, going 9-of-35 from distance, but the difference — as has been the case for his entire career — was the presence of LeBron James.

LeBron had 35 points, which was just under the Vegas projections, on 12-of-24 shooting along with 15 rebounds and nine assists, which was impressive given how awfully the rest of the Cavs shot the ball in the game. The supporting cast, as it has all playoffs, struggled from the field, but in the absence of Kevin Love he did get one teammate stepping up in a big way, which proved to be just enough, as Jeff Green’s 19-point performance was enough to push the Cavs past the Celtics.

It wasn’t pretty, and there weren’t a ton of actual highlights to be had, but the Cavs did just enough and LeBron’s reign over the Eastern Conference continues. The two most impressive plays of the night both involved LeBron challenging Boston dunks at the rim, with Terry Rozier getting blocked by James and Jayson Tatum throwing it down over him.

For Boston, they went cold at the wrong time, as Tatum (24 points) and Al Horford (17 points) were the only ones able to get anything going offensively. Rozier and Jaylen Brown both had woeful shooting nights and with a short rotation there just wasn’t the margin for error for that kind of performance from the backcourt.

Now, the Cavs will wait to find out if their opponent will be the Warriors for the fourth consecutive year, or if there will be fresh blood out of the West in the form of the Houston Rockets.