WASHINGTON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The Cleveland Cavaliers crushed the Detroit Pistons 125-94 in Game 7 on Sunday to advance to the NBA Eastern Conference finals.
Four Cleveland players scored more than 20 points, with Donovan Mitchell leading with 26. Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill scored 23 points apiece, and Evan Mobley had 21 points and 12 rebounds.
The Cavaliers advanced to the conference finals for the first time since 2018. They will face the New York Knicks, with Game 1 of the series to be held in New York on Tuesday.
The Cavs led 31-22 after the first quarter, and took control in the second quarter with a 24-9 run en route to a 64-47 halftime lead.
The Cavs kept rolling in the second half and led by as many as 35 points.
"We didn't just come here to win a goal," said Mitchell, who made the conference finals for the first time in his career.
"It's been almost a decade of running into the same issue," he added. "As a team, we can breathe a little bit, but the same token, we can only breathe for about 12 hours, and then get right back to it."
Daniss Jenkins scored 17 points, and Cade Cunningham and Duncan Robinson finished with 13 each for the Pistons.
Earlier in the day, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive year, becoming the 14th player to win back-to-back MVP awards.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder to a league-best 64 wins in the regular season with an average of 31.1 points per game, second only to Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic's 33.5 points. He also extended his NBA-record streak of regular season games with at least 20 points to 140 and will continue adding to it next season. ■
