Nets buck LeBron’s triple-double, stun Cavs

NEW YORK – With injuries on both sides, the point guard matchup came down to LeBron James against Spencer Dinwiddie. James had the bigger numbers. Dinwiddie made the biggest plays. Dinwiddie hit the go-ahead threepointer with 43 seconds left, and the Brooklyn Nets overcame James’ first triple-double of the season to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 112-107, on Wednesday night.

A former second-round pick of Detroit starting only because of injuries to Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell, Dinwiddie scored a career-high 22 points as the Nets blew a 14-point lead in the final quarter but recovered to improve to 3-2 – the same record as the defending Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers.

“Obviously they’re Eastern Conference champions just about every year – or actually every year – and then either win the Finals or don’t obviously,” Dinwiddie said. “And for us to pull out a win and be able to close them out obviously after they made their run and to be able to respond, I think it just of kind of brings a young group a little bit closer together and kind of shows us that we can do it and hopefully propels us going forward.”

James had 29 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in his 56th tripledouble, but he missed two free throws – the second intentionally – with the Cavaliers trailing by two with 7.6 seconds remaining. DeMarre Carroll then hit a free throw and the Cavs’ long inbounds pass intended for James went out of bounds.

But the Cavs pointed to the start of the game as their problem.

“Just taking us too much time to get into the game; like get into the flow of the game,” James said. “Teams are playing with a faster pace than us to start the game and we have to figure that out for sure.”

In other results, Charlotte trounced Denver, 110-93; Detroit routed Minnesota, 122-101; Houston rallied to nip Philadelphia, 105-104; San Antonio notched its fourth straight win with a 117-100 romp over Miami; Oklahoma clobbered Indiana, 114-96; Dallas overcame Memphis, 103-94; Phoenix stunned Utah, 97-88; and Golden State repulsed Toronto, 117-112.

Back in New York, Rondae HollisJefferson and Allen Crabbe added 19 points apiece and Carroll scored 18 for the Nets, who bounced back from Tuesday’s loss in Orlando, when Russell sprained his right knee to join Lin on the injured list, and fell just shy of becoming the first NBA team in 32 years to open a season with five straight 115-point games.

“Everybody from 1 to 15 on the roster, everybody’s ready,” Crabbe said. “Everybody works hard, so when opportunities come guys are ready to step up and ready to play.”