Cavs beat New Jersey Nets
By Brian Windhorst
Beacon Journal sportswriter
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Season appropriate, the Cavaliers are in full bloom.
Their maturation simply continues to surge as they conquer challenge after challenge, the latest and perhaps greatest high point coming Saturday. Staring down a fierce opponent riding the longest win streak in the NBA this season, the Cavs delivered yet another command performance.
Coming from 11 points behind, LeBron James led the Cavs on another rally over the super-streaking New Jersey Nets for a 108-102 win.
James scored 18 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter, as the Cavs (46-30) claimed their 10th victory in 11 games and put a stranglehold on the No. 4 playoff spot. With the Washington Wizards' 99-86 loss to the Miami Heat, the Cavs wrapped up the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference for homecourt advantage.
The Cavs halted the Nets' (46-29) 14-game winning streak, their nine-game home winning streak, and the Cavs' eight-game losing streak at Continental Airlines Arena. They did it without center Zydrunas Ilgauskas (ankle) and washed the taste of a disappointing last-moment loss to the New York Knicks out of their craniums.
No wonder the players and coaches were hailing it as the finest win of the season.
``Our team has shown grit all year. It is a good thing to do that on the road against a good team,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said. ``This has to be one of our biggest wins if not our biggest win.''
After scoring 37 points in the fourth quarter in their narrow loss to the Knicks on Wednesday, the Cavs put up 36 in the final quarter Saturday afternoon against a team that had been thriving on defense. While James was the ring leader, nearly the entire roster shared in the glory.
Five different Cavs scored in double figures, and seven different players scored in the fourth quarter as the team shot 61 percent down the stretch. But the game ended up turning on key defensive plays.
Nets star Vince Carter, who had 33 points, had been victimizing the Cavs on high-and-rolls, prompting Brown to call for a change in the defensive strategy. So when Carter got a pick to get by Eric Snow with 50 seconds to play and the Nets up three, Anderson Varejao ``blitzed'' the pick, stepping up. It slowed Carter, and Snow recovered to poke the ball away from him from behind.
The ball bounced to James, who proceeded to make one of the biggest highlight plays of the season on a resulting fast break. The Nets' Cliff Robinson fouled James, and teammate Jason Kidd planted his palm on the ball and pushed down.
``I knew I was going to get fouled once I turned on the speed burst,'' James said. ``I was just getting hit all over.''
James broke Robinson's hit and Kidd's grip as he was falling and tossed the ball off the glass for a basket. James sunk the free-throw for a three-point play that tied the score.
``It was an MVP play and performance on his part,'' Kidd said.
``He was like a linebacker let loose,'' Brown said.
Moments later, Carter tried to answer with a jumper but missed, the first of three missed jumpers in the final minute, and Varejao was in position for the rebound when he and Nenad Kristic bumped.
Kristic was called for a foul, which was questionable, but the Cavs figured to have karma on their side after losing a game to the Nets earlier this season on a ``backdown violation.''
Varejao, a 49 percent free-throw shooter, then cooly made both free throws to give the Cavs the lead for good. Starting in place of Ilgauskas, Varejao had 11 points and five rebounds.
Drew Gooden delivered 16 points and nine rebounds, Flip Murray had 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting, Larry Hughes played his best game since coming back from injury with 15 points and seven rebounds, and Donyell Marshall had seven points and five rebounds off the bench.
``I knew it was going to be a great game,'' James said. ``We're one of the hottest teams in the league also.''
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