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ByTomWithers The Associated Press CLEVELAND LeBron James scored 23 points, Kyrie Irving re- turned after missing two games and the Cleveland Cavaliers re- served a spot in the NBA Finals with a 118-88 victory over the At- lanta Hawks on Tuesday night to win the Eastern Conference title. By sweeping the top-seeded Hawks, the Cavs earned their second trip to the finals, where they will face either Golden State or Houston. It will be the fifth straight visit to the league's showcase event for the inimitable James, who returned to Cleveland after four years in Miami to try and end this city's championship drought dating to 1964. The Cavs are four wins from doing it, and if they can, James will have a title that would put him in a class by himself. Other players have won more champi- onships, but none has ever done it for his ring-starved home re- gion. This is why he came back. Jeff Teague scored 17 and Paul Millsap 16 for Atlanta, which won a team-record 60 games during the regular season and made the conference finals for the first time since 1970. But the Hawks were no match for the Cavaliers and had no answer for James, who nearly averaged a tri- ple-double in the four games. J.R. Smith added 18 points and NBA PLAYOFFS LeBron,Cavalierssweep Hawks,earnNBAFinalsspot Cleveland earns second trip to title round, will face either Warriors or Rockets TONYDEJAK—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) drives against Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap (4) in Game 4of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday . RON SCHWANE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) puts up a shot against Atlanta Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll (5) in the first half of Game 4of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday. By Fred Goodall The Associated Press TAMPA, FLA. Derek Brassard had a hat trick and Henrik Lun- dqvist stopped 36 shots in an- other season-saving perfor- mance as the New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-3 Tuesday night to force Game 7 in the Eastern Conference fi- nals. Brassard also had two assists for the Rangers, who evened the series 3-3 after being shut out in Game 5 at home. Keith Yandle, James Sheppard and J.T. Miller also scored on Ben Bishop, who was pulled with New York lead- ing 5-1 with just under 13 min- utes remaining. Rick Nash added a power-play goal against Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brassard had an empty-netter with 1:41 to go to complete the hat trick. Lundqvist was outstanding before giving up a pair of third- period goals to Nikita Kucherov. New York improved to 4-0 in elimination games this postsea- son, and Lundqvist is 9-1 with his team's season on the line since the start of last year's play- offs. And he's not finished. Game 7 is Thursday night in New York, where Tampa Bay has won twice in this series. Brassard got the Rangers off to a strong start with his first goal at 3:36 of the first period. He scored again at 7:14 of the third, chasing Bishop and fin- ishing a stretch in which New York scored three times in just over four minutes to break the game open. Nash finished with a goal and three assists. Yandle had a goal NHL PLAYOFFS Br as sa rd , Lu nd qv is t le ad R an ge rs p as t Li gh tn in g PHELAN M. EBENHACK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS New York Rangers center Derick Brassard (16) scores a goal against Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop (30) during the first period of Game 6of the Eastern Conference finals in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs Tuesday. By Antonio Gonzalez The Associated Press OAKLAND One play. One fall. One bad break. That's all it takes to shift a se- ries and derail a dream season. Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors found out how fragile a championship chase can be in their Game 4 loss at Houston when the NBA MVP took a scary spill that nearly gave a storybook season a frightening twist. Instead, the moment just serves as a reminder to both teams: nothing is over till it's over. The Warriors will get another chance to close out the Rockets on Wednesday night at home and ad- vance to the franchise's first NBA Finals in 40 years. Golden State, which leads the Western Confer- ence finals 3-1, is eager to end the series now and avoid more oppor- tunities for something strange to happen. "We just don't want to come back to Houston," Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. "It's not go- ing to be easy. They are here for a reason. We have to come and play with more intensity and play to- gether and we'll win the game." NBA PLAYOFFS Warriors tr y ag ai n to win West in Game 5 Houston's Howard will be eligible to play tonight NHAT V. MEYER — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP The Golden State Warriors will get another chance to close out the Houston Rockets tonight at home and advance to the franchise's first NBA Finals in 40years. By Dave Boehler The Associated Press MILWAUKEE Madison Bumgar- ner won another game in May and three San Francisco Giants homered in a 6-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night. Bumgarner (6-2) gave up four hits and three earned runs in six innings to improve to 5-1 in his last six starts. He's also 9-1 in May the last two seasons. Matt Duffy, Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt hit home runs and Santiago Casilla earned his 13th save for San Francisco, now 10-2 in its last 12 games. Milwaukee lost is fourth straight and is 1-6 over the last seven. Matt Garza (2-7) struggled again, allowing eight hits and five earned runs in five innings. The right-hander has lost his last four decisions, owns just one victory in his last eight starts and is 0-4 at Miller Park. The Brewers already trailed 5-0 when they got their first hit off Bumgarner in the fourth on a solo homer by Aramis Ramirez. In the sixth, a run-scoring dou- ble by Ryan Braun cut San Fran- MLB Bumgarner notches win, Giants beat Brewers Christian Ponder has talked football, family and faith with Derek Carr since joining the Raiders as an unrestricted free agent. Ponder's yet to discuss with Carr how fame can be as a starting QB in the NFL. RAIDERS QBPondertakesreps with first team FULLSTORYONPAGEB2 The Northern Section CIF Track and Field Champion- ships is scheduled to be held at West Valley High School on Friday, starting at 4p.m. Run- ning events are scheduled to start at 6p.m. TRACK AND FIELD West Valley hosts section finals Friday The Spartan Soccer Camp for boys and girls in eighth through 12th grades is scheduled to be held Monday through Thursday evenings from July 13-23. For more in- formation, visit bit.ly/1FBCVIk. SOCCER Spartan Soccer Camp set for July 13-23 WARRIORS PAGE 2 Get your puzzles fix with the NEA Crossword, 7Little Words and Celebrity Cipher, start your day off right with your horoscope, and read the latest advice doled out by Amy Dickinson. YOUR DAILY BREAK Fun and games inside today PAGE B3 NBA PAGE 2 NHL PAGE 2 GIANTS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, May 27, 2015 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1