LeBron scores 30 as Cavaliers hammer Spurs

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — LeBron James hung a towel around his neck and relaxed on the bench the entire fourth quarter. The San Antonio Spurs were still without their biggest star, and the Cleveland Cavaliers no longer needed their own.

Pouring in 30 points and grabbing 14 rebounds before taking it easy after the third quarter, James and the Cavaliers shook off a terrible start to a four-game road swing with a 97-86 win over the Spurs, who again kept Tim Duncan in street clothes.

One night after Cleveland lost Ben Wallace to a broken leg and shot a season-worst 34 percent against Houston, the Cavaliers regained the look of an Eastern Conference leader in a rematch of the 2007 NBA Finals.

James was 12-of-23 from the floor in 32 minutes. He also had four assists after being shut out in that category Thursday night for the first time in his career.

“That’s the best thing about the NBA,” James said. “In the NBA you can play as bad as you ever played one night and the NBA schedule allows you to make up for it the next night.”

Tony Parker, who averaged 38 points the last two games, was one of four Spurs with 11 points. Duncan missed his third consecutive game for San Antonio with a right quad injury.

Delonte West added 17 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 10 for Cleveland, which will resume its four-game road swing Sunday at Atlanta. They’ll do so without Wallace, who is expected to miss four to six weeks after breaking his right fibula in a 93-74 loss to the Rockets on Thursday.

The Cavs pulled away early with a 13-0 run in the first quarter fueled, in part, by James running away for an open-court dunk that had the sold-out crowd jumping from their seats and their camera flashes twinkling before James even lifted off.

The Spurs closed the gap to seven at halftime, only to offer watch Cleveland’s lead balloon to 21 at the end of the third quarter.

“I thought we dug ourselves out of it,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “At that point we played hard, played well, and then LeBron took it away with those three 3s to start the third quarter. He’s great. And that was that.”

James sat out to start the fourth and didn’t return. He didn’t need to.

He instead watched his teammates put the finishing touches on improving to 19-4 against the Western Conference.