the cavs won their first championship in 1956.
the cavs won their first championship in 1956.
when did the cavs win their first championship?
1956
on july 9, 2018, superstar lebron james signed a four-year, $154 million contract with the lakers after playing a second stint with his hometown cleveland cavaliers. he led the team to their first championship title in 2016, and led them to the nba finals 4 other times (2007, 2015, 2017, and 2018). this marked his second time leaving the cavs, after controversially doing so in 2010 to join the miami heat, where he led the team to 4 nba finals appearances, winning back-to-back in 2012 and 2013. the signing also briefly intensified the celtics–lakers rivalry, as his former cavs teammate kyrie irving was traded to the boston celtics the year before and when former celtics star rajon rondo joined lebron in los angeles. irving played 2 seasons for the celtics before signing with the brooklyn nets during the 2019 offseason.
2018–19 los angeles lakers season
looking to go up 3–1 and take complete control of the series, the bulls went up 37–29 early in the second quarter. however, the cavs scored 16 unanswered points to go up 45-37 before settling for a 49–45 halftime lead. the bulls dominated the third quarter, outscoring the cavs 23–12. they led by as many as 11 points before settling for a 68–61 lead heading into the 4th quarter. led by j.r. smith and timofey mozgov, the cavs would rally, opening the 4th quarter on a 19–5 run to take an 80–73 lead with just under 5 minutes to play. with just under 40 seconds to play, lebron hit two consecutive free throws to put the cavs up 84–79. butler hit a three on the bulls' next possession, cutting the deficit to 84–82. the cavs were forced to burn three consecutive timeouts as they were unable to inbound the ball. once they inbounded the ball, james tried to burn the clock down as he was double teamed by rose and dunleavy. however, james swung his arm at dunleavy and committed an offensive foul, giving the ball back to the bulls with 14 seconds remaining. rose tied the game with a layup to even the game at 84–84 with 8 seconds remaining. james rushed down the court and tried to score the go-ahead layup but was blocked. the ball went out of bounds with 1.5 seconds remaining. on the cavs' final possession, matthew dellavedova inbounded the ball to james. james fired a jumper over butler that went through the hoop as the buzzer sounded, giving the cavs an 86–84 win. the cavs regained homecourt advantage as they evened up the series at 2–2. james led the team with 25 points (10/30 shooting) while rose led the bulls with 31 points on 11/23 shooting.
2015 nba playoffs