LeBron, Cavaliers come up a bit short

James missed a free throw in the final second as the Cavs lost their fifth straight.
DENVER (AP) -- LeBron James missed a free throw with 0.6 seconds left and Alan Henderson's tip-in bounced out at the buzzer, leaving the Denver Nuggets to celebrate a 90-89 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
James finished with 24 points but the Cavs lost their fifth straight, including the first four on their Western trip.
Carmelo Anthony and Earl Boykins led the Nuggets with 17 points each and Kenyon Martin and Eduardo Najera each scored 16.
Anthony zipped past Ira Newble for a dunk that gave Denver an 89-87 lead with 21 seconds left. He then fouled Sasha Pavlovic with 11 seconds left.
Pavlovic missed both shots but Eric Snow got the board. Najera stole the ball under the basket and was fouled by Snow with 4.6 seconds left.
With a chance to seal it, Najera made his first shot but missed his second, leaving the Cavs down 90-87 with a chance to send the game into overtime with a 3-pointer.
Andre Miller fouled James before he could set up for a three, and James made his first shot, then purposefully misfired his second and grabbed his own rebound while getting fouled by Martin.
James swished the first shot to make it 90-89, then missed his second.
Injury bug
Cleveland forward Drew Gooden missed his second straight game with a strained right thigh.
Ilgauskas started despite a balky left knee. Had he not been able to play, the Cavs would have been without three starters. Guard Larry Hughes is out until March with a broken finger.
Ilgauskas, who skipped the Cavaliers' practice Tuesday in Denver, and Gooden were both game-time decisions.
Gooden, averaging 11.4 points and 8.7 rebounds, hurt his leg in the third quarter of the Cavaliers' 115-106 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night and sat out Sunday night's game at Portland.
He's day-to-day and might suit up Friday night at Golden State in his hometown of Oakland, Calif.
"We still will do what we always want to do," said forward Donyell Marshall. "We have injuries, but we brought in guys in the summer so that we would be able to continue to do those things. That is part of the game. We can still be aggressive and play the way we want to."
Still, they realized it would be more difficult to shake their slump without their top players.
"I don't want to make an excuse," James said. "But the core guys that we had with us at the beginning of the year are not with us right now. We have to fight through it and get better and just keep working hard."
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