James dominates final minutes

LeBron James scored 27 points as Cleveland defeated Chicago.

GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

CLEVELAND — An arena in need of an energy boost turned electric Sunday when LeBron James plugged into his alter ego — Mr. Fourth Quarter.

James electrified another sold-out crowd of 20,562 at Quicken Loans Arena with more fourth-quarter dominance in a 95-86 win over the Bulls. Six straight points by James, including one thunder dunk, gave the Cavs the lead for good in their fourth straight home win.

“I just live for the fourth quarter,” James said. “When the games are close … that’s when I like to do work. We were just able to take the life out of them.”

James zapped the Bulls in manner of just 69 seconds, thrilling new teammates with a dunk where his head was level with the rim — 10 feet above the grounded mortals.

“Anytime you’re flying down like that ... it got me hyped like I did it,” said forward Joe Smith, who was traded to the Cavs from the Bulls just more than a week ago. “It’s been special just to be here with him and be part of playing with him.”

James began taking over after nearly losing the ball out of bounds along the sideline with 3 1/2 minutes left. But he was able to save the ball to himself before eventually getting into the lane for a left-handed scoop shot. That put the Cavs ahead 85-83 with 3:10 left.

On their next possession, James got free after forward Anderson Varejao set a screen near the top of the key. James raced down the open lane to the right, took off and had his head at rim level when Chicago’s Luol Deng arrived as the help defender. Too late. Deng got dunked on as the crowd roared its approval with the Cavs leading 87-83 with 2:29 left.

“That kind of crushed them a little bit ... that dunk was tremendous,” Smith said. “You could kind of see them deflating a little bit.”

On Cleveland’s next trip down the floor, James worked the left side and knocked down a 20-foot step-back jumper for an 89-83 lead with 2:01 left.

“You could kind of see all the wind go out of them,” Smith said. Smith stood his ground to draw an offensive foul against former Cavs forward Drew Gooden on the ensuing Bulls possession. That set up James’ encore — a nice pass into the left corner where a wide open Wally Szczerbiak stood and delivered the final dagger, a 3-pointer.

“When you have LeBron James making plays like he was making, getting guys wide open shots and then dunking the ball like he did at the end of the game, it makes the game easy,” Szczerbiak said.

James finished with 37 points, six rebounds and six assists. Szczerbiak, with 17 points off the bench, was the only other Cavalier to score double figures.