James potent near end

LeBron James scored 24 points in the fourth quarter as the Cavs rallied to win.

TORONTO (AP) — For three quarters he was ordinary. Then, when it mattered most, LeBron James was unstoppable.

James scored 39 points, including 24 in the fourth, to help the Cleveland Cavaliers rally for a 93-90 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.

“In the fourth quarter, he was amazing,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “He just took the game over and put us on his back. What a tremendous, tremendous performance.”

James, who made eight of 10 field goal attempts in the fourth, said tuning out distractions helped his concentration.

“I just felt like I was out there by myself,” he said. “Everything was going right for me and I just felt like I was out there in practice. The hoop felt like the ocean.”

Forward Drew Gooden has seen James take over before, but said this one was special.

“This was impressive because of the circumstances,” Gooden said. “We were down 20 on the road and we could have easily given in. He was attacking the basket and knocking down outside shots.”

With the Cavs trailing 70-57 to begin the fourth, James scored on a layup, a free throw and back-to-back 3-pointers in the first three minutes. Damon Jones added two 3-pointers before James tied it at 76 with a jump shot at 6:26.

“I was able to control the tempo in the fourth quarter with my penetration,” James said, “getting into the lane and kicking out for 3s.”

James’ spurt set off alarm bells for Toronto’s Jamario Moon.

“When he started hitting [shots], we knew it was going to be a long quarter,” Moon said. “I thought we were going to hit some shots, build the lead back up a little bit and pull the win out, but he kept hitting them and they pulled it out.”

James gave Cleveland its first lead with a 3-pointer from the right wing at 3:59, then drained another 3-pointer on the Cavaliers’ next possession.

Two free throws by Jose Calderon and a layup from Moon tied the game at 84, but James made a layup and Daniel Gibson hit a wide-open 3 from the corner to put Cleveland up by five.

Chris Bosh had two free throws and two layups in the final minute, but Cleveland sealed the game at the free throw line.

James struggled in the first three quarters, making just six of 19 attempts and looking pained after two airballs and a missed dunk in the third.

“He wasn’t as aggressive as in the last quarter,” center Zydrunas Ilgasukas said. “He settled for some jump shots. They blitzed him a lot. We just stopped setting pick-and-rolls for him, just kind of isolated him at the top and he drove to the hoop. We changed our offense a little bit for him and it opened up.”

The NBA’s leading scorer, James added 11 rebounds and eight assists for Cleveland, which got 14 points from Larry Hughes, and 10 points and 12 rebounds from Gooden.

Bosh led Toronto with 23 points, Anthony Parker had 20 and Calderon had 16 points and 11 assists.