Cleveland Cavaliers Lebron James holds up the trophy after defeating the Detroit Pistons during Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals basketball series in Cleveland, Ohio, on Saturday night. - Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters):

The Cleveland Cavaliers eased to a 98-82 home victory over the Detroit Pistons on Saturday to advance to the NBA finals for the first time in their 36-year history.

The Cavaliers won the last four games of their Eastern Conference finals to take the best-of-seven series 4-2 and in doing so, became just the third team in NBA history to rally from a 0-2 deficit at this stage of the play-offs.

Cleveland will now head to San Antonio to take on the Spurs in Game One of the finals on Thursday, the Western Conference champions enjoying home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series following their victory over the Utah Jazz.

LeBron James, the young star and team leader, told reporters after the game that he had been preaching "Championship, every single day" to his teammates all season.

"Now we've made it happen, this is special," he added.

Rookie Daniel Gibson was also special on Saturday.

The young guard his teammates call 'Booby' had 19 of his career-high 31 points in the final quarter as the Cavs broke open a close game after leading by one going into the final period.

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"Booby is a guy with a lot of poise and a lot of heart," Cleveland coach Mike Brown told the crowd as his team was presented with the Eastern Conference championship trophy by former Celtics great Bill Russell.

"If you leave him alone, you better watch out because it's Booby for three. Shoot it, Booby, shoot it!"

Gibson hit five three-pointers in the final period.

James, whose 48-point performance (including his team's final 25 points) in Game Five was considered one of the greatest individual clutch performances in NBA history, added 20 points (despite just 3-for-11 shooting), 14 rebounds and eight assists.

Richard Hamilton led Detroit with 29 points.

Before the game, James told Gibson the shots would be there as the Pistons would be trying to stop him.

"He told me to keep shooting," Gibson said.