James’ 41 spill hesitant Lakers

No one took a final shot when Los Angeles needed three for a tie.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The final seconds ticked away, with the Los Angeles Lakers needing a 3-pointer to send the game into overtime.

That shot was never even attempted.

LeBron James won his personal matchup with Kobe Bryant in a duel of the NBA’s leading scorers, tallying 14 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter, and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat Los Angeles 98-95 Sunday for their fifth straight win over the Lakers.

After James’ two free throws with nine seconds to play gave Cleveland a three-point lead, the Lakers took a timeout to formulate strategy. The Cavaliers, of course, focused their defense on Bryant.

“That’s really what you want. You want to not allow Kobe to get a clean look from the start of the play, make those guys make a couple passes, which we did, and not let them get a clean look,” Cleveland’s Larry Hughes said. “Nobody wanted to shoot it.”

Luke Walton appeared to be the player who should have fired away.

“Has to, he’s the open guy,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said before quickly adding: “The game wasn’t lost on that sequence.”

Walton, who had scored only 17 points in the Lakers’ previous five games, shooting 6-for-20, shouldered the blame.

“We ran our last-second play, I was hoping to get the shot off,” said Walton, who shot 4-for-8 for nine points and also had five rebounds, five assists and four steals. “I kind of fumbled the ball a little bit, wasn’t aware the clock was as low as it was, and as soon as I passed it back to Kobe, I realized that that was a mistake, and unfortunately it cost us big.”

Bryant scored nine of his 33 points in the final period, and also had 12 rebounds and six assists, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep the Lakers from losing their third straight to match their longest losing streak of the season.

“It was designed for me to come up from the top of the floor and get a good look at a 3,” Bryant said regarding the last play. “We had to run a dribble weave in that situation and they both came with me, so I kicked it out. I don’t know if he had a clear look at the basket. I think they rotated to him pretty quickly. There’s always other options.”

The Cavaliers took a 94-93 lead on a basket by James with 1:16 remaining, and Bryant drew an offensive foul nine seconds later.

After an empty possession by each team, James ran the shot clock down before hitting from outside with 20 seconds to go, giving the Cavaliers a three-point lead.

Ronny Turiaf made a follow shot with 13 seconds left, trimming Cleveland’s lead to one point, setting the stage for James’ last points and the final sequence.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 16 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 6:14 to play, and Hughes also scored 16 points for the Cavaliers (24-19), who won for the 12th time in 15 games.

Lamar Odom had 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Lakers (27-15), who have a 2-4 record since center Andrew Bynum injured his left knee. It was their fourth game without Trevor Ariza, who broke his right foot. Neither player is expected to return before the middle of March.

The game was delayed for 12 minutes late in the first quarter because of a small leak in the Staples Center roof. It resulted in a steady flow of drops falling under the north basket — out of bounds but less than a foot from the baseline.

Arena spokesman Michael Roth said a roofing company inspected the roof Sunday morning and when the inspectors were finished, they removed their rain gear and left it along with some equipment on a catwalk over the north basket. The leak came from the clothing and equipment through slats in the catwalk.

“It helped me for the second half,” James said. “I was able to get a long rest. I didn’t come out in the second half because of that.”