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Nothing was going to stop the Cavaliers from bouncing back from a tough loss that ended a five-game winning streak. Not even a team like the Suns, who were undefeated on their home floor coming into to Monday night’s game.
The Cavaliers held a solid lead throughout much of the game, then put away their opponents in the fourth quarter, erupting for a 109-91 win. LeBron James finished with 29 points to lead the Wine and Gold, while point guard Mo Williams added 24 of his own.
The Suns came into the contest with a 10-0 record at the U.S. Airways Center and are the highest-scoring team in the NBA. Still, they were unable to keep up with the Cavaliers offense, which shot over 52 percent from the field.
Cleveland hounded the Suns ballhandlers and big men all-night long, resulting in 18 turnovers for the home team.
“Our effort was at a pretty high level for most of the night on the defensive end of the floor,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said after the game. ”When we do that, we get good results.”
The Cavaliers actually trailed by one after the opening 12 minutes, but picked things up late in the second quarter.
They went on a 10-3 scoring run to end the first half and entered halftime up 59-53.
LeBron James carried much of the scoring load in the opening half, racking up 18 points before intermission.
Although he had just one assist in the entire half, it didn’t seem to matter. He was too busy slicing through the Suns defense and attacking the rim to dish passes out to his teammates.
“Me personally, I’m always in attack mode,” said James. ”Against any team I always try to get layups or get in the paint and create things for my teammates. Whatever the defense gives me I am going to take.”
James deferred more to others in the second half as the defense began to crowd him.
The main target was Mo Williams, who scored 16 points in the second half.
Even with Williams coming alive after halftime, the Suns managed to keep things close. At least for a little while.
Phoenix never led in the second half, but did tie things up just minutes into the third quarter on a Steve Nash jumper. Nash scored eight points in the period, but by the time the quarter ended the Cavs had extended their lead back up to seven.
The Cavaliers disposed of the Suns in the fourth quarter as five different Cleveland players scored in the final 12 minutes.
Phoenix scored just 16 points in the fourth and just 38 in the entire second half.
The Suns are a team that relies heavily on the three-point shot, but they were unable to connect from long range in the second half.
They shot 0-9 from beyond the arc in the half.
“We just really struggled in the second half,” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry. “We really got nothing going offensively.”
The Cavaliers had no trouble scoring in either half.
Delonte West played his third-straight solid game as he continues to deal with personal issues. He finished the game with 12 points and six assists.
“His confidence is getting back up,” said James on West. ”He’s very tough on the offensive end because he’s one of those guys that can post up small.”
Anderson Varejao also played well off the bench, scoring 13 points and grabbing four rebounds.
“Our guys off the bench were very productive,” said Brown. ”They were productive not only scoring points, but defensively.”
Shaquille O’Neal played his first game in Phoenix since the Suns traded him to the Cavaliers this past summer. He finished with just three points and five rebounds in 19 minutes of action.
The victory is important for the Cavaliers, not only because the Suns are establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the West, but because it was a complete contrast from the way James and Co. played the previous night against Dallas.
“We’re a veteran ball club and we know how important back to back games are and bounce back games,” said James. ”We don’t let one loss linger around our team and we never have. We just come out and take every game like it’s own. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to last night but tonight we forgot about it and moved on.”

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Tue, Dec 22, 2009
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