LeBron James, Cavaliers Storm Back to Beat John Wall, Wizards 119-115
The Cleveland Cavaliers stormed back and defeated the Washington Wizards, 119-115, on Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena to establish a slim half-game lead over the Philadelphia 76ers for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Cleveland (49-30) will head to the City of Brotherly Love on Friday for a showdown with a surging Sixers (48-30) team that has won 12 straight.
The Wizards, meanwhile, dropped to 42-37 and remain slotted in the No. 7 seed after the eighth-seeded Milwaukee Bucks fell to the Brooklyn Nets, 119-111, at BMO Harris Bradley Center on Thursday night.
Washington has now lost three games in a row—and this one will sting.
The Wizards led by 17 points with 7:35 remaining in regulation, and they appeared headed for a comfortable win behind John Wall's finest statistical effort since he returned from knee surgery Saturday.
In 38 minutes, Wall finished with 28 points, 14 assists and three steals.
However, he'll likely be thinking long and hard about shoddy late-game execution after he misfired on a pair of mid-range jumpers in the final minute. The first could have stretched Washington's lead to three with 32 seconds left, while the second—which LeBron James contested—came with nine seconds remaining and Washington trailing by one:
On top of that, Wall committed his sixth turnover with the Wizards down two and 2.5 seconds remaining as he attempted to set up a last-gasp triple.
Those woes punctuated a dreadful fourth period for Washington.
Not only did the Wizards grow stagnant on offense in crunch time, but the Cavaliers also blistered their defense to the tune of 37 points in the final frame—13 of which James scored.
ESPN Stats & Info shed some more light on LeBron's fourth-quarter performance:
All told, James tallied a game-high 33 points (12-of-20 shooting), 14 assists and nine rebounds.
Kevin Love added 16 points and six boards, while newly minted starting power forward Jeff Green racked up 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting in Tyronn Lue's first game back back on the bench after he stepped away for nine contests to address health concerns.
Thanks to all those efforts, the Cavaliers erased memories of a lethargic 24-minute stretch between the second and third quarters that saw them get outscored, 64-43.
Now, Cleveland will pack its bags and head to Philly for the second night of a back-to-back in hopes of creating a cushion in the standings.
The Wizards will also be back in action Friday as they attempt to bust out of their slump against the Atlanta Hawks at Capital One Arena.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
