CAVALIERS There's no 'O' in Cleveland as Philadelphia pulls away



The 76ers outscored the Cavs 16-2 down the stretch.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Zydrunas Ilgauskas never sensed the blur quickly closing on him from behind, or what was about to happen.
Andre Iguodala's block caught the 7-foot-3 center flatfooted.
Iguodala raced the length of the floor to stuff Ilgauskas' layup just seconds after a 10-0 run by Philadelphia helped send the 76ers to a 93-81 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.
"That was one of the highlights of the season," Philadelphia coach Jim O'Brien said. "We tell our guys to chase everything down. Terrific hustle."
Allen Iverson tore the bandage off his chipped thumb and scored 31 points, and Chris Webber added 14 -- including a ridiculous 3-pointer to start Philadelphia's fourth-quarter push -- as the Sixers moved one-half game ahead of Orlando in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Kyle Korver added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Sixers, who improved to 6-5 since Webber arrived in a trade.
Key shot
With Philadelphia down 79-77 and the 24-shot clock running down, Webber picked up a loose ball in front of Cleveland's bench and flung in his 3-pointer to put Philadelphia ahead for good.
The shot triggered a game-closing 16-2 run for the Sixers, who held the Cavaliers without a field goal over the final 6:51.
"I tried to get a foul and then I just threw it up there," Webber said, smiling. "It went in."
The lucky shot deflated the Cavaliers, who had battled back from a 15-point deficit in the second half.
"That took a lot out of us," Jeff McInnis said. "That was crazy. But we still had a lot of chances."
One came with the Sixers leading 87-79 and 3:02 remaining. Ilgauskas got free upcourt and took a long pass before heading to the basket for what appeared to be an easy layup or dunk.
But just as he got the ball up close to the rim, Iguodala arrived, swooped in and swatted it away.
"It was instincts," Iguodala said. "I didn't want him to get an easy shot. He was going a little slow and I just happened to catch him. He had to bring up his right hand and I just got ahold of it."
Poor shooting
LeBron James scored 16 points on just 3-of-20 shooting for the Cavs. He came in averaging 35 points and shooting 56 percent in his past three games, but never found his range.
"It was just one of those nights," James said. "Dang, I was missing all kinds of shots."
Iverson, the NBA's leading scorer, chipped a bone in his left thumb Tuesday night in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. He didn't practice the past two days or take part in Friday's morning shootaround.
Sixers medical personnel designed a special wrap for Iverson's thumb, using an adhesive that molded and hardened around it to protect and immobilize it. But after missing his first four shots, Iverson tore the bandage off, wadded it into a ball and tossed it to O'Brien, who never doubted that Iverson would play.
"I would have been shocked if he didn't," he said.
Iverson added nine rebounds and five assists in 44 minutes. He shot 9-for-27 but refused to blame that on his thumb.
"I got hit on it a couple times going to the basket and falling down, but it didn't bother me," he said.
Ilgauskas added 15 points and 15 rebounds for the Cavs, who missed their final nine shots and dropped to 24-9 at home.