Cavs complete season sweep of Lakers
CLEVELAND - As chants of "M-V-P" filled the electrified air, LeBron James locked his thumbs under his maroon jersey and made it pop off his chest.
The Cavaliers had beaten the NBA champions again, and James soaked in every second.
"This," he said, "is what I live for."
Cleveland showed its Christmas Day win over Los Angeles was no gift as James scored 37 points, including 12 straight down the stretch, and the Cavs, playing their first game without injured Mo Williams, beat Kobe Bryant and the Lakers 93-87 on Thursday night.
J.J. Hickson grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds and Anderson Varejao made 3 free throws in the final 20 seconds as Cleveland swept the season series between the league's top two teams. That could give the Cavs (33-11) homecourt advantage if they meet the Lakers (32-10) in June's finals.
A lot can happen between now and then, but the win gave Cleveland confidence it might be able to survive despite losing Williams, their all-star point guard, who will miss at least one month with a shoulder sprain. Williams scored a team-high 28 in Cleveland's Dec. 25 win at Staples Center.
Williams will be missed. But with James around, the Cavs have little to fear.
"He willed this win for us," Cavs coach Mike Brown said of his star. "He has been doing that for us down the stretch, no matter who our opponent is."
Bryant finished with 31 points but was only 4 of 15 in the second half as the Lakers lost the opener of an eight-game road trip. Pau Gasol scored 13 for Los Angeles, which shot just 33 percent in the final three quarters.
Bryant surpassed 25,000 career points, but he was unable to match James in the fourth quarter as both teams turned to their superstars. Earlier, Bryant was looking forward to a physical game and was eager to see how the Lakers would respond to playing "smashmouth" basketball against Eastern Conference squads like Cleveland and Boston.
Afterward, he wasn't so sure the Lakers are rough enough.
"The mentality has to change a little bit playing against these teams," Bryant said. "These teams are physical, tough-minded, hard-nosed types of teams. That's not part of our DNA. We have to step up and match that and still play skillful basketball."
James was careful not to put too much stock into Cleveland's win. He knows the regular-season sweep will mean nothing if the Cavs can't win it all.
"You don't want to look too far into beating one team twice," he said. "The championship still goes through L.A. It doesn't matter if you beat the team four times, you still have to beat them in the Finals to take that trophy away from them."
With the game tied 87-87, James blasted down the left side for a layup with 40.5 seconds to go, sending the raucous Quicken Loans crowd into a frenzy. After Gasol missed 2 free throws that would have tied it, James was fouled and missed the second of 2 free throws. But the ever-hustling Varejao was fouled by Artest as they battled in the key for the loose ball. Varejao, a 66 percent foul shooter, made both attempts for a 92-87 Cavs lead with 20.7 seconds left.