Irving comes up big in fourth but Cavaliers can’t catch Nets

Associated Press

cleveland

The New Jersey Nets came into town battling illness and injuries.

The Nets headed home with consecutive wins for the first time this season.

Deron Williams scored 27 points and New Jersey held off a late Cleveland rally for a 99-96 victory on Friday night.

New Jersey coach Avery Johnson wasn’t sure who would be available until about an hour before game-time. Forward Kris Humphries missed Friday morning’s shoot-around with the stomach flu, but was in the starting lineup and scored 18 points with 11 rebounds in 33 minutes. The Nets played without center Mehmet Okur (back injury) and guard MarShon Brooks (strained Achilles), but New Jersey led from wire-to-wire despite dressing only 10 players.

“We didn’t know if Kris would be available, but he came out and battled through it,” Williams said. “He’s a warrior. It’s definitely a good win without those guys and Kris being sick.”

The Nets, who defeated Philadelphia in overtime on Wednesday, also completed their first winning road trip with a 2-1 record.

Rookie point guard Kyrie Irving scored a season-high 32 points, including 21 in the fourth quarter, for Cleveland. The Cavaliers have lost five of six and their latest defeat left coach Byron Scott in a cranky mood.

“I don’t know if guys thought we’ve arrived or we can’t stand prosperity,” he said. “We lost the game, period. They played harder than we did for a longer period of time than we did. We got what we deserved. We waited until there was seven minutes left in the game to play harder.”

New Jersey built a 16-point lead in the third quarter and was comfortably ahead throughout most of the fourth quarter until the Cavaliers rallied. Cleveland cut the deficit to eight points with 1:57 remaining. Irving hit a 3-pointer and a layup before Anderson Varejao’s jumper with 16.5 seconds left cut the lead to 97-93, but Anthony Morrow hit two free throws a second later.

Irving hit at 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap the best scoring performance of his brief career for the first overall pick in the draft.