NBA playoffs
LeBron leads Cavs past Nets and into conference finals EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – LeBron James came back just in time to make sure the New Jersey Nets couldn’t.
James, who had a long stint on the bench with foul trouble, scored 23 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 15 years by beating the Nets 88-72 Friday night.
Cleveland won the series 4-2 and heads to Detroit on Monday night for its third appearance in a conference finals and the first since 1992. James, who had eight rebounds and eight assists, needed only four years to get the Cavs into the NBA’s final four.
He got plenty of help in the clincher from reserves Donyell Marshall and Daniel Gibson, and the Cavs needed it because James spent most of the third quarter on the bench in foul trouble and Cleveland managed just eight points. New Jersey cut what had been a 22-point deficit to one, but with James back for the fourth quarter, the Nets never could take the lead.
James was asked what he was thinking as the Nets got within one point.
“Would the third quarter please end so I could get back in the game?” he said.
Marshall scored 18 points and Gibson had eight. They had combined for 26 points total in the first five games of the series.
Jason Kidd had 19 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for the Nets, who stayed alive with a victory at Cleveland in Game 5 and were hoping to become the ninth NBA team to come back from 3-1 deficit to win a series.
Instead, they stalled in the conference semifinals for the second straight year.
Richard Jefferson scored 16 points and Mikki Moore added 14, but leading scorer Vince Carter had only 11 and heard boos in what could have been his last game for the Nets. He can become a free agent this summer.
Cleveland led by 15 points early in the third quarter, but the Nets stormed back when James went to the bench with his fourth foul with the Cavs up 59-46 a little more than 4 minutes into the period.
Kidd scored the next two baskets, triggering a 14-2 run to end the period. The Nets outscored the Cavs 22-8 in the quarter – Cleveland just missed the worst third quarter in NBA playoff history – and closed to 61-60 heading to the fourth.
The Nets were down only one after Moore’s three-point play with 9:38 to play, but Gibson and Marshall made consecutive 3-pointers to push the lead to 70-63 with 7:45 left. James made a jumper less than a minute later for his first points since the first quarter, and Marshall – 0-for-7 in Game 5 – buried another 3 to make it 75-66 with 5:47 remaining.
With that, Cleveland prevented another second-round heartbreak. The Cavs led Detroit 3-2 last year before dropping the final two games.
“This is a big win for our franchise and a big win for us individually and a birthday present for Donyell Marshall,” James said of his teammate who went 6-for-10 from 3-point range on the day he turned 34.
The Cavs missed their first chance to clinch with an 83-72 loss Wednesday night in Cleveland.
“We wanted to be aggressive and we did a great job of spreading the floor for our shooters,” James said of the Cavs’ strategy at the start of the fourth quarter. “Donyell and Daniel did a great job. They knocked it down. In Game 5 we had the same opportunities but we didn’t knock it down.”
James bruised and cut his knee chasing a loose ball in the final minute of Game 5, but was quickly cleared to play and said he was fine before Friday’s game.
He quickly showed it, scoring 14 points in the first quarter. But he stayed stuck on that total while the Nets nearly made the comeback, but just having him back on the floor was enough to steady the Cavs, who regained control midway through the final quarter.
Cleveland closed the first quarter with a 17-2 run, turning a two-point lead into a 32-15 cushion on Marshall’s 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds left. Kidd and Carter combined to miss their first seven shots and were only 1-of-8 in the period.
The Cavs kept pouring it on in the second, extending the lead to 39-17 on the second of Marshall’s consecutive 3-pointers with 9:22 remaining in the half, drawing boos from the Continental Airlines Arenas crowd.
Carter had only five points in the first 22 minutes when one fan screamed out “Hey Vince, are you here tonight?” He had four more before halftime when the Nets closed to 53-38 when Bostjan Nachbar made a 3-pointer as time expired.
Notes: James said before the game that his pregnant girlfriend was fine, two days after she was taken to the hospital during Game 5 in Cleveland. Asked if the couple had a name for the baby, due next month, James said: “She does, but I don’t.” … The fewest points in a third quarter is six by Atlanta at Boston on May 6, 1986. … Cleveland guard Eric Snow needed three stitches for a cut on his left elbow.