LOS ANGELES: LeBron James had one of his worst offensive games on Tuesday night, but the Cleveland Cavaliers turned in one of their best efforts on the defensive end.
Mo Williams had 20 points, Delonte West added 17 and the Cavaliers held the high-flying Atlanta Hawks scoreless for nearly nine minutes at the start of the final quarter to post a 95-84 road victory.
“That’s what we do. Defensively, we lock down in the fourth quarter. That’s where games are decided,” said James, the league’s third-leading scorer, who accumulated just 14 points on 6-of-20 shooting, along with 10 assists and eight rebounds on the eve of his 25th birthday.
“It was a great defensive performance on a night when we didn’t shoot the ball extremely well.”
Lithuanian Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 15 while Shaquille O’Neal had 10 and eight boards for the Cavs (25-8) who notched their season-high tying fifth straight victory in the front end of the home-and-home series that shifts to Cleveland on Wednesday.
“We knew these two games were going to be big because the Hawks are a young, energetic upcoming team,” O’Neal said. “We felt we played our C-plus game tonight, but tomorrow we’ll be looking to step it up.”
Jamal Crawford had 26 points off the bench, Josh Smith and Joe Johnson added 15 apiece for the Hawks (21-9) who scored just 10 points in the final 12 minutes.
“We laid an egg in to fourth quarter. Smith said. “It’s kind of disheartening to lose this one.”
A record sellout crowd of 20,150 at Philips Arena was treated to a spirited contest through three quarters between two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference until the Cavs went into lock down mode.
Cleveland carried a 75-74 advantage into the final frame and pitched a shutout for the first 8:49 to break open the game.
West (five) and Williams (three) combined to score all the points in an 8-0 run as the Cavs opened up an 83-74 advantage. At the other end, the Hawks missed 10 consecutive shots, all three free throws and coughed up the ball seven times.
“We just had a lid on the bucket,” Smith explained. “They weren’t doing anything special defensively. We had shots we normally make that wasn’t falling for us.”
After Ilgauskas hit a jumper, Smith finally ended the drought with a dunk at the 3:12 mark to make it 85-76.
The Hawks pulled to within 89-84 on Crawford’s drive with 54.7 seconds remaining. However, the 7-foot-3 Ilgauskas buried just his fourth three-pointer of the season from the right corner, before West followed with his exclamation triple to seal the win.
“We have to go to Cleveland (Wednesday night) and see what we’re made of,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said.
LA Lakers 124, Warriors: 118 Kobe Bryant had season-highs of 44 points, including 17 in the final quarter along with 11 assists, carrying the Lakers to their seventh straight win over the visiting Warriors.
Spaniard Pau Gasol also had a season-best 27 points and 12 rebounds for the defending NBA Champions (25-6) who had dropped two of their last three contests, including 15-point losses to Cleveland and Phoenix the last five days.
Corey Maggette scored 25 points and Monta Ellis added 22 for the Warriors (9-21), who beat Phoenix and Boston, but failed to put together a season-high three-game winning streak despite shooting 56 percent from the field.
Rockets 108, Hornets 100: Aaron Brooks scored 27 points, Shane Battier had 20, and the two split 10 of the Rockets’ 12 threes to overcome David West’s career-high 44-point, 12-rebound effort.
Chris Paul had 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his 11th career triple double but New Orleans (13-16) dropped to 2-13 on the road.
Spurs 117, Timberwolves 99: Richard Jefferson scored 24 points, Argentine ace Manu Ginobili had 14 with 10 assists and nine rebounds off the bench, leading the Spurs (18-11) to their ninth win in the last 11 games.
Al Jefferson tallied 20 points for the Timberwolves (7-25) who have lost their last 10 visits to San Antonio.
Knicks 104, Pistons 87: David Lee had a season-high 30 points with 12 rebounds, Wilson Chandler scored 23 and the visiting Knicks (12-19) sent the slumping Pistons (11-20) to their eighth straight loss.
City Thunder 110, Wizards 98: Kevin Durant had 35 points with 11 rebounds, Russell Westbrook added 11 points and 10 assists, carrying the visiting Thunder to its first-four game winning streak since the 2005-06 season.
Antawn Jamison led Washington (10-20) with 28 points.
Bulls 104, Pacers 95: Derrick Rose scored 28, John Salmons added 17 and the Bulls regrouped after blowing an early 19-point lead to hand the visiting Pacers (9-21) their seventh straight loss.
