James leads Cavaliers comeback over Heat

LeBron scored 42 as Cleveland beat Miami 107-100.

MIAMI (AP) — LeBron James watched Dwyane Wade steal the ball, drive for a reverse dunk that gave the Miami Heat an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter, and summoned Mo Williams for a quick meeting.

“It’s up to us,” James told Williams.

With that, the comeback got started.

James scored 42 points, Williams got 15 of his 30 points in the final 7:14 to lead a stirring rally, and the Cleveland Cavaliers dominated the final minutes to beat the Heat 107-100 on Monday night.

“It was tough. It was tough,” James said. “It’s probably one of the better wins we’ve had this year, man.”

A historic win, too. The Cavs are now 47-12 — 35 games over .500 for the first time in franchise history.

Wade’s dunk put Miami up 91-80 with 7:52 left. The Heat shot 2-for-17 with four turnovers the rest of the way, getting outscored 27-9 — a far cry from Saturday night, when the Heat got 24 from Wade in the final quarter to pull off a stunning win over the New York Knicks.

This time, the Heat were witnesses, not winners.

“A huge loss,” Wade said. “It hurts.”

Williams also had seven rebounds and seven assists, and got the comeback going with two huge 3-pointers to spark a 12-0 run that erased what seemed like a comfortable lead midway through the final period.

James sealed it with 42.7 seconds left, blowing past Jamario Moon for a fierce right-handed slam to put the Cavs up 100-95.

That dunk — fierce even by LeBron standards — left Cleveland coach Mike Brown stammering for words.

“I thought, I didn’t think, I don’t know, I don’t know how he did it,” Brown said.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 12 points and had 15 rebounds — his fourth double-double on a four-game road trip — for Cleveland, which moved a full game ahead of idle Boston for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Jermaine O’Neal scored 16 points, Mario Chalmers added 15 and Moon had 11 for Miami, which shot 2-for-17 with four turnovers in the final 6:52 to waste what was a 91-80 lead. Not to mention wasting the second straight 40-plus scoring effort by Wade, who pulled off that feat for the second time in his career.

It was also the second time James and Wade have each had 40-plus in a game: James had 47 and Wade 44 on April 1, 2006, when Cleveland won at home over Miami 106-99.

“We don’t want each other to have bragging rights,” said James, who got his second win in 11 tries at Miami.

“We definitely go at it when we play each other.”