LeBron James, Cavs snap Wizards' winning streak in OT thriller
WASHINGTON – Against the Eastern Conference’s best team since Dec. 1, Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star LeBron James delivered. So did Kevin Love, amid trade talk. And so did Kyrie Irving.
James delivered a career-high 17 assists, 32 points and seven rebounds and helped the Cavs to a 140-135 overtime victory against the Washington Wizards, ending Washington’s 17-game home winning streak. It also snapped the Wizards' seven-game winning streak overall.
Love had 39 points and 12 rebounds, and Irving, who sat out Saturday’s game against the Knicks, scored 23 points, including a three-pointer with 35 seconds left in overtime, giving the Cavaliers a 136-133 lead. His baseline basket with 1:03 remaining tied the score at 133-133.
The fourth quarter and overtime were spectacular with 12 lead changes and 11 ties in the final 17 minutes.
"It was an instant classic – a great basketball game by two really good teams," Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. "A lot of great plays throughout the 53 minutes of basketball, on both ends. Both teams were hard to stop, a lot of guys made a lot of really great plays. Unfortunately, we didn’t make one last one at the end. It would have been nice."
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The Cavs delivered a reminder to the improving Wizards, too: they are still the Kings in the East. It was Cleveland’s first road victory against a team with a winning record since beating Charlotte on Dec. 31.
James’ three-pointer with .3 seconds left in the fourth quarter forced overtime, and Love threw a wonderful 3/4 court pass from out of bounds to set up James, who caught the basketball, found the three-point line and took the shot. "Kev gave me a great pass, a play that we work on in practice. I practice it all the time," James said.
James, who logged another 40-minute game, passed Lenny Wilkens for No. 13 on the NBA’s all-time assist list. But he needed help in overtime after fouling out for just the fifth time in his career.
"We don't want him to go to the bench," said Irving, who had 11 points in overtime. "But I saw the Wizards bench when I was on the floor and LeBron got his sixth foul, I think they thought that the game was going to kind of take a turn. But we had some veteran players out there. We had to execute down the stretch and you know that's money right there, winning time, and you want to be a part of a game like that."
It was an important conference game for both teams. The Wizards own the best record in the East since Dec. 1 at 24-10 and have moved into third place in the conference.
"It’s been a good February for us so far after a not-so-good January," James said. "We wanted to try and continue that tonight against a hot team at their home. We knew they had this game circled and we knew in order for us to win we needed to play some inspired basketball and we did that."
It was the biggest game at Verizon Center since All-Star John Wall was drafted in 2010. The game deserved overtime, and the loss does not diminish Washington’s status as a solid team.
Wall said the game was "everything we've been doing, playing team basketball, moving the ball, knocking down big shots, competing on both ends of the floor and having a lot of heart. We showed that again tonight, and I hope a lot of people respect that. It is probably one of the best games of the year."
Bradley Beal scored 41 points, and Wall had 22 points and 12 assists.
"We can't let this one fall. This is a game we should've won," Wall said. "LeBron made a heck of a shot that he will probably make one out of a million times. Kyrie came and threw up a big shot to go up three and we had an opportunity to go into double overtime. So we fought, we didn't ever quit and we have to keep this momentum going even though we lost a tough game."
Before James’ game-saving three that forced overtime, Beal and James exchanged threes late in the game, and Porter – the league leader in three-point shooting percentage – gave the Wizards a 110-107 lead with three minutes left in the fourth.
James tied it with his fourth three-pointer of the game, and his assist to Korver for a three gave Cleveland a 113-100 edge with 2:17 to play. It was a flurry of threes in the fourth, and Love’s three-pointer with 76 seconds left put the Cavs ahead 116-112. That wasn’t the end of the threes. Beal knocked one down with 43.7 seconds left, tying the score at 116-116.