James scored 38 points, got 12 rebounds and 6 assists, totally dominating game five of the series with the Bulls and Cleveland take the lead in the series for the very first time, but more importantly, they are now one win away from reaching the conference final.
King LeBron James or that is how he should be called after the display in game 5 of the series with the Bulls, with Irving also putting a great game. The Cavs won this match 106- to 101 after having lost a seventeen point lead and have reached the conference final for the first time since 2009. A top NBA tipster knows that in 81.7% of the times that a team has won game 5, they have won the series. After scoring 38 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assist and not a single ball lost, few can argue that this was a master-class performance and the Cavs coach, David Blatt, said after the match: “LeBron was amazing tonight, in every aspect of the game. There is absolutely nothing that he did that wasn’t brilliant. In the end of the game he blocked Rose’s lay-up which would have allowed the Bulls to draw level and the defensive pressure he put on Butler which forced him to lose the ball with 11 seconds to go…” Chicago played like Chicago, in the first half at least, with a great performance by Rose who scored 12 of the initial 14 points for the Bulls before the Cavs’ coach Blatt took a tired looking Irving off and put on Shumpert with the sole objective of isolating Rose, which he successfully managed to do. Once again Gasol, who at this point is in serious doubt for game 6, wasn’t at all present in the area both in attack and in defence. By the end of the first half James was already on 24 points with 10 from 12 shots. What looked like the decisive break, came about at the end of the third period and the beginning of the fourth, with the 3-pointers from Irving and Smith which took them to a 17 point lead that even the best NBA betting expert could have considered decisive at that point of the match. The Bulls though, fought right back into the game and were so close to taking the victory before King James decided to close up shop and win the Cavs the game and possibly the series. The World’s best NBA tipster knows that the key in game 6 will be if Cleveland manage to keep Rose at bay, or at least quiet, with a LeBron James so on fire, then the road to the conference final will be open to them.