The Cleveland Cavaliers earned the franchise's second-ever trip to the NBA Finals with a 118-88 victory over the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks to win the Eastern Conference title on Tuesday in Ohio.
Cavaliers All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving played after missing two games with a sore left knee.
The 23-year-old scored 16 points in his return.
LeBron James had 23 points for Cleveland.
James said it took hard work to reach the finals.
"When I made my decision to come back here, I knew what I wanted to do but I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I knew it was going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication and it's going to be the toughest task for me to try to get this team back to the finals."
It will be the fifth straight visit to the league's finals for LeBron James, after making it there in each of the four years he played in Miami. He won two championships in that span.
Cleveland will face either Golden State or Houston starting June 4 for the title.
