Cavaliers head to Eastern finals after dumping out Bulls

LeBron James struggled to score 15 points, Kyrie Irving limped off the court and the Cleveland Cavaliers still beat the Chicago Bulls 94-73 to clinch their Eastern Conference semi-final series in six games.

Matthew Dellavedova scored 19 points and Tristan Thompson added 13 points and 17 rebounds to help the Cavaliers advance to the conference final for the first time since 2009 even though their superstar played like a mere mortal and their All-Star point guard hobbled to the locker room in the first half.

Despite all that, Cleveland are right where they expected to be after James decided to come home from Miami and return to his first team. The Cavaliers didn’t expect to get there like this, though – with Kevin Love suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in the opening round and Irving trying to gut through problems with both legs.

Irving scored six points in 12 minutes before he came down on Thompson’s foot early in the second quarter with the score 35-35 and did not return.