LeBron’s 41 helps quarreling Cavs hold off Pacers in 2 OTs

The man guarding George, however, was James, who had a herculean performance of his own, scoring 41 points to go along with 15 rebounds and 11 assists.

CLEVELAND – Kyrie Irving slammed Philadelphia 76ers’ forward Justin Anderson into the sideline to earn a flagrant foul less than 90 seconds into the game Friday night and declared it payback for rough treatment of Cavaliers teammate LeBron James.

“I kind of saw Justin kind of lower his shoulder and knock down Bron”, Irving said.

Frank Kaminsky had 18 points and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist added 16 for Charlotte, which entered the day in 10th place in the East, two games behind Chicago, Indiana and Miami, who were tied for seventh. They struggle to stop simple pick and rolls; they lack a rim-protecting big man (a role Andrew Bogut was going to fill before breaking his leg); they have been disjointed for months because of injuries; and they’ve lacked focus at both ends of the floor, relying on 3-pointers to overcome defensive deficiencies. Paul had 29 points and 10 assists for the Clippers, who moved within one game of the idle Utah Jazz for fourth place in the Western Conference. Sunday’s game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers, a pair of desperate teams, had it all, including plenty of evidence highlighting how important the game was to both.The Cavaliers need something, anything, positive while trying to put a terrible March in the rearview mirror and regain their championship form.”We need any one”, James said when asked about the importance of the win.

MIAMI – Kristaps Porzingis scored 22 points, Courtney Lee added 20 as NY led almost the entire way in beating Miami.

Booker, three games removed from his 70-point outburst in Boston, missed Tuesday’s game in Atlanta with a sore right ankle.

A pair of James dunks put the Cavs up three, but George scored after a bad Iman Shumpert turnover and Miles hit another three to put the Pacers up 104-102. “I was fine, and we kept moving on”. “This is what we have and we know that, so as we continue to get our guys healthy and we continue to get into the flow of things, we’ll figure it out”.

“For this season as a whole, Cleveland is a minus-8.2 without James on the court”. Thompson finished with 12 points, hitting 5 of 7 field goals, and nine rebounds. So when he comes back off the screen he wasn’t able to get up fast enough.

Lakers 108, Grizzlies 103: D’Angelo Russell scored 28 points and three Lakers had double-doubles in a victory over Memphis. Minnesota had 30 assists and only 11 turnovers.

Ish Smith contributed 21 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Pistons.

Devin Booker topped the Suns with 33 points, and Marquese Chriss added 20 points. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 12 points, and Andre Drummond secured 11 rebounds for Detroit.

Houston suffered back-to-back defeats after losing 117-107 to the Trail Blazers.

The Pacers points came via George, C.J Miles (27), Thaddeus Young (19) and Jeff Teague (17). Harden’s 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter gave the Rockets 1,078 3s, an National Basketball Association single-season record.

Oklahoma City shot out to a 13-6 lead, but the Hornets used a 28-9 run to go up 34-22 early in the second quarter.