It hasn’t always been the case, but LeBron James is pretty comfortable playing in Boston.

The Cleveland Cavaliers pummeled the Boston Celtics 135-102 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday night to set up a third straight matchup against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

It will be LeBron’s seventh consecutive trip to The Finals and all it took was another masterful performance at TD Garden.

James had a cool 35 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals in 34 minutes. He shot 13-for-18 from the field and put to rest any concerns about his level of play -- or a stomach bug -- with another championship in sight. More memorable than even the outcome of the game was a 27-foot three-pointer from the left corner with 2:40 left in the third quarter that pushed James past his childhood idol, Michael Jordan, for first place on the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring list. Always aware, he walked back on defense after the historic shot with one finger held high in the air.

“First of all, I wear [No. 23] because of Mike. I think I fell in love with the game because of Mike, seeing what he was able to accomplish," said James. "I feel like Mike was so … you know, when you’re growing up and you see Michael Jordan it’s almost like a God. I never believed I could beat Michael. I started focusing myself on other players and other people around my neighborhood because I never thought you could get to the point where Mike was. That helped shape my game and I think the biggest thing for me, sitting here today, after breaking the all-time scoring record in playoff history, I did it just being me.

“I don’t have to score the ball to make an impact on the game and that was my mindset. When I started playing the game, I was like ‘If I’m not scoring the basketball how can I still make an impact on the game?’ and that’s carried me all the way to this point now. It’s going to carry me for the rest of my career.”

LeBron will enter The Finals with 5,995 playoff points, eight more than Jordan and nearly 2,000 ahead of the closest active player (Tony Parker).

The Cavaliers’ victory may not have been as emphatic as Game 2 last week, but it was demoralizing for the Celtics nonetheless.

Marcus Smart answered a Kevin Love three in the game’s first 75 seconds, but Cleveland rolled from there. By the 5:20 mark in the first quarter it was 23-12 and the lead would never shrink back to single digits. It was 18 at the half and 35 after three.

The Cavaliers were on pace to score 146 points entering the fourth, but Ty Lue smartly sat his starters in favor of an all-bench unit and the scoring slowed slightly.

In just three quarters of work, LeBron, Love and Kyrie Irving combined to score 74 points on 58.6% shooting.

“They were great again tonight, so again, you don’t want to take anything away from them,” Brad Stevens said. “As crazy as it sounds, going into halftime, we had cut it to at least a manageable number. Then we come out, we get some tremendous looks, and Kyrie just goes nuts and ends us. That’s basically what happened.” 

The Celtics, meanwhile, struggled to score, defend and take care of the basketball. That’s a recipe for disaster against anyone, especially the defending NBA champions.

Avery Bradley was the only player to score more than 11 points, putting up 23 on 10-for-20 shooting. If you remove Bradley’s field goals, the Celtics shot an abysmal 39.3% with their season on the line.

“I think as a coach, you always believe you can win the next game because you believe you can win the next possession,” Stevens said. “I thought we played a little too haphazard tonight. I didn’t think it was a lack of effort at the beginning, but our offensive mistakes led to bad defense, and it just kind of snowballed on us.”

They fought hard for the No. 1 seed, but it ultimately meant nothing in late May. Cleveland not only won all three games in Boston, but they didn’t trail for even a second and compiled a +90 point differential.

The Celtics weren’t given much of a chance going into the series and were then blown out in the first two games and saw Isaiah Thomas sidelined with a hip injury. They battled back and took Game 3 on Bradley’s game-winning three and gave the Cavaliers another battle in Game 4. In the fifth and final game of the series, we once again saw how a team can be both close and so far away from the NBA Finals.

“I think collectively you take away what elite looks like, because I think we saw it first hand, especially in these home games,” said Stevens of the experience. “Individually, there’s room for improvement on everybody. We got some outstanding performances. We got some throughout the year, and we really had guys progress well, but they’ve got to keep making that progress.”