Hot hand burns Suns

Associated Press

PHOENIX

Kyrie Irving sank a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 21.9 seconds to play and the Cleveland Cavaliers held on to hand the Phoenix Suns their fifth loss in a row, 101-97 on Monday night.

Brandon Knight’s 3-pointer cut Cleveland’s lead to 96-95 with 1:27 to go and, after LeBron James missed a jumper, Knight hit another 3 but it was waved off because of an offensive foul against the Suns’ Tyson Chandler.

The Cavs almost turned it over on their next possession but got the ball to Irving, who made a jumper from beyond the top of the key.

In his fourth game since returning from knee surgery, Irving also hit a 12-foot floater to put Cleveland ahead 96-92 with 1:44 to go.

Irving scored 22 points, J.R. Smith had 17 and Kevin Love added 16 for the Cavs, who ended a two-game skid. James had 14 points, only two on 0-for-3 shooting in the fourth quarter.

T.J. Warren scored 23 and Knight had 18 for the Suns, who earlier in the day announced they had fired assistant coaches Mike Longabardi and Jerry Sichting.

Nate Bjorkgren was promoted to take Longabardi’s job as defensive coordinator. Assistant coach Earl Watson was promoted to a bench coach position.

Both teams were coming off their worst losses of the season. Cleveland was routed at Portland 105-76 Saturday night, the same night Phoenix lost an embarrassing one at home to Philadelphia 111-104. The Cavs took the lead for good with 5 minutes remaining in the first half but never were up by more than 11.

Cleveland scored the last seven points of the third quarter to take an 81-73 lead entering the fourth. Irving scored five in the surge, including a driving layup high off the glass, Cleveland’s only field goal in the last 7:11 of the quarter.

The Suns were worse. They had one field goal in the last 8 minutes of the third.