Cleveland Cavaliers blow out Chicago Bulls, advance to conference finals

The Cleveland Cavaliers reached the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night with Kyrie Irving sitting primarily on the bench.

LeBron James didn't light it up either.

A quartet of role players helped pick up the slack.

Matthew Dellavedova scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter and the Cavaliers routed the Chicago Bulls 94-73 in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.

Irving, already dealing with a right foot strain and tendinitis in his left knee, exited the contest at the 9:47 mark of the second quarter with a left knee injury. He did not return.

Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert and James Jones also played pivotal roles in Cleveland's first trip to the conference finals since 2009. Each one took over at times during the game.

James was a rebound shy of a triple-double, posting 15 points, 11 assists and nine boards, but was just 7-of-23 from the floor. He will be making his fifth straight appearance in the East Finals.

[SportsNetwork.com]