Saturday, January 24, 2004
The 99-94 win was the 300th of Paul Silas' coaching career.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Rest up, LeBron. And take your time.
Carlos Boozer can take care of the Cavaliers until you're well.
Boozer matched a career-high with 32 points and added 20 rebounds as Cleveland survived its first game without LeBron James, beating the Seattle SuperSonics 99-94 Tuesday night.
Boozer, one of the NBA's most underrated players, picked up the slack for the Cavs, who were minus their top two scorers -- James (sprained ankle) and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas (suspension) -- as they swept the season series with Seattle for the first time.
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"He was awesome," Cleveland's Paul Silas said after Boozer helped him get his 300th career coaching victory. "He's figuring out things. Once he gets it, the whole world will open up for him."
Boozer, who has 64 points and 38 rebounds in his past two games, became just the fifth Cleveland player to record at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game. He is the first since Shawn Kemp in 1998.
"To win without 'Z' and LeBron gives everybody confidence," said Boozer. "Those two are a huge part of our offense, but other guys stepped up."
Tony Battie added 17 points, Dajuan Wagner 14, Kedrick Brown 13 and Kevin Ollie hit two big free throws down the stretch for the Cavs, who went 38-of-42 from the line.
The Cavs also outrebounded Seattle 55-35 and beat the Sonics for the first time in nine tries at Gund Arena.
Rashard Lewis had 27 points and Ray Allen 20 for Seattle, which pulled even at 91-91 on Vladimir Radmanovic's 3-pointer -- his second in a row -- with 2:17 left.
Darius Miles, who skipped Cleveland's practice when he overslept on Monday, soared down the baseline to dunk a miss by Battie, and after Lewis misfired on a 3, Ollie made his two free throws to put the Cavs up 95-91 with 27 seconds to play.
Sealing it
Lewis converted a three-point play as the Sonics crept back within one, but Boozer, who was coming off a 32-point, 18-rebound performance in an overtime win at Utah, made four straight foul shots in the final 21.3 seconds to ice it.
"This was a big-time win," said Boozer. "Everybody stepped up. I'm not trying to downplay what I did, but I'm not playing it up, either."
Allen shot 9-of-25, missing badly on his final four attempts in the last 2:22.
Seattle guard Antonio Daniels said the Sonics' defense was -- and has been -- horrible.
"We're not stopping anybody," he said. "We can make all the excuses we want to about this and about that. Man, we've got to stop people. That's it. No excuses."
Before grabbing a seat on Cleveland's bench, James said he would take his time and not rush coming back to play until his right ankle was 100 percent.
Playing it smart
"It's a long season and I've got a long career," said James, who has not run on his ankle yet and was limping as he walked back and forth to the Cavs' locker room.
Cleveland is hoping James will be ready for Thursday's game against Sacramento, but it's beginning to look as if he might miss a few more games.