Cavs' rally falls short

Cleveland dropped a 113-111 contest to the New Jersey Nets.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Vince Carter broke a scoring drought with 38 points to help the New Jersey Nets hold off the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-111 Wednesday night.
LeBron James led Cleveland with 37 points, but fell just short of bringing the Cavaliers back from a 16-point, fourth-quarter deficit.
The win evened New Jersey's record at home this season at 8-8. The struggling Nets have lost nearly as many home games as they did all of last season when they were 29-12 at Continental Airlines Arena.
Cleveland fell to 3-8 on the road.
Carter has hot hand
Carter, who entered the night averaging 25.9 points, had been held to 12, 12 and 11 points in his last three games. He surpassed that with 14 points in the first quarter Wednesday and missed his season high by three points.
New Jersey began its surge at the end of the third quarter, sparked by reserve forward Bostjan Nachbar, who played 22 minutes Monday night against Memphis but had played 18 minutes in the Nets' four games before that.
Nachbar's driving dunk and 3-pointer gave the Nets a 78-68 lead, and they scored 11 points in the first 1:56 of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 89-73.
James and Damon Jones (14 points off the bench) helped the Cavs cut the deficit to 93-86 before New Jersey pulled away again.
Cavs rally back
James' 3-pointer then brought Cleveland within three points at 111-108 before Carter sank a free throw with 10 seconds left, then knocked away a pass by James and sank another free throw. Jones hit a 3-pointer in the final second.
Neither team led by more than eight points until late in the third quarter. Carter scored 14 points in the first quarter but was scoreless in the second as Cleveland overcame a 46-39 deficit to lead 52-51 at halftime.
The Cavs, who shot 36 percent from the field in an 81-74 loss at Orlando on Saturday in their most recent game, made 11 of their first 18 shots (61 percent) Wednesday before cooling down and shooting 11-for-45 (25 percent) in the second and third quarters combined.
Notes
New Jersey's Jason Kidd scored nine points to reach 13,000 for his career ... Jason Collins scored a season-high nine points for New Jersey ... The last time the teams met here, Cleveland won 108-102 on April 8 to snap New Jersey's 14-game winning streak. "That started something special," James said before the game. "Coming in and beating the hottest team in the league, we carried that through the end of the season and into the playoffs." ... The Nets' planned move to Brooklyn for the 2009-10 season cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when the state Public Authorities Control Board voted unanimously to authorize the Atlantic Yards project. "The organization has been committed to making this a metropolitan team, a regional team," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "Obviously we love the support in New Jersey, but the intent was to move to Brooklyn and this was a major step in that direction." ... NBA executive vice president of operations Stu Jackson presented Kidd with a commemorative ball in honor of his moving past Wilt Chamberlain last Monday for third place on the triple-double list.