The Cleveland Cavaliers took the hits and punched a ticket to the Eastern Conference finals after sweeping away the Atlanta Hawks for the second consecutive season.
Kevin Love hit eight triples en route to 27 points with 13 rebounds, LeBron James hit a huge jumper with 39.2 seconds left, and the visiting Cavaliers knocked out the Hawks 100-99 on Sunday in Game 4 of their semifinal series.
“The close-out game is the hardest game,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said.  “They gave us everything they had but we stuck with it. We were tested tonight. If you want to be a champion you got to get hit and we took their punches.”
Cleveland awaits the winner of the Toronto-Miami series. The Raptors lead 2-1 with game 4 Monday in Miami. James collected 21 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, while Kyrie Irving also netted 21 for the top-seeded Cavaliers, who are 8-0 in the post-season following sweeps over Detroit and Atlanta.
“That was a hell of a series,” an emotionally-drained Irving said.  “Atlanta didn’t give us anything. That’s the type of test you want in the playoffs. We’re going into the Eastern Conference finals with a load of confidence.”
The Cavs are coming together at the right time.
“We’re in a great rhythm right now,” said James of fellow superstars Love and Irving. “We know exactly where we want to be on the floor and it’s trickled down to the team.”
Lu agreed: “We hit our stride at the right time. The last 3-4 weeks we played well and it’s carried over.”
Germany’s Dennis Schroder scored 21 points while Paul Millsap had 19 with nine rebounds for the fourth-seede Hawks, who were swept by the Cavs in last year’s conference finals. “We wanted to beat his team so bad,” Millsap said, “It left a bad taste in our mouth last year. This year we thought we had them figured out but they did something completely different. “They hurt us with their (77) threes. When everybody can shoot the ball like that it puts our team in a tough spot the entire series.”
The desperate Hawks led by 12 in the first half and 97-96 in the fourth quarter before James was credited with the go-ahead layup when Millsap was whistled for goal-tending with 1:16 left to play. The Hawks looked to regain the lead but Tristan Thompson blocked a Schroder layup try, and James dropped in a jumper over Millsap opening up a 100-97 advantage.
A layup by Schroder out of a timeout pulled the Hawks to within one.  They regained possession after James missed a three-pointer with 14.5 seconds left. The speedy Schroder picked up the ball and raced up court but slipped in the lane on a pump fake. He was quickly met by Thompson and James, forcing a jump ball with 2.8 ticks to go. James easily won the jump over the shorter Schroder, tipping it into the right corner where teammate J.R. Smith and Al Horford battled for it.
Instead, Millsap picked up the loose ball and threw up a desperation heave that missed after time expired.
“We knew they were going to give us their best shot and punch us in the mouth and give us everything they had,” Love said. “It came down to a two-minute game and we made the plays at the end. It was a great series for us to close out.”
Elsewhere:
Oklahoma City Thunder 111, San Antonio Spurs 97: Kevin Durant tied his playoff career-high with 41 points, Russell Westbrook had 14 with 15 assists, and the Thunder stormed past the visiting Spurs to square their Western Conference semifinal series at 2-2.   
 Dion Waiters netted 17 points while Steven Adams had 16 with 11 rebounds as the third-seeded Thunder outscored their guests 66-44 in the second half.
The second-seeded Spurs were led by Tony Parker’s 22 points, Kawhi Leonard had 21 and LaMarcus Aldridge contributed 20.    
“Kevin was great, he was fantastic,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “They out-toughed us in the fourth quarter and with Durant having great night got them the game.”
Results
Eastern Conference
At Atlanta
Cleveland 100 Atlanta 99
(Cleveland wins series 4-0)
Western Conference
At Oklahoma City
Oklahoma 111 San Antonio 97
(Series tied 2-2)