LeBron’s blitz helps Cavs outlast Bulls
chicago — LeBron James scored 33 points as part of a tripledouble, Jordan Clarkson had a tiebreaking four-point play with 1:27 left and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls 114109 on Saturday night.
James had 12 rebounds and 12 assists for his 15th triple-double of the season, and Jeff Green added 21 points. Clarkson finished with 19 points to help the Cavaliers salvage a six-game split on their season-high six-game trip.
Denzel Valentine led Chicago with a career-high 34 points, hitting 8 of 11 from long range. The Bulls wiped out a 17-point halftime deficit even though they held out banged-up core players Lauri Markkanen, Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn, only to come up short in the closing minutes.
Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue Milwaukee 122 San Antonio 117 Brooklyn 114 New York 124 Washington 109 Portland 100 Phoenix 109 Utah 103 Chicago 109 Memphis 101 New Orleans 101 Atlanta 117 Minnesota 101 Dallas 106 Charlotte 101 Indiana 102 Detroit 87 Golden State 124 Sacramento 97 Cleveland 114 Denver 94 Houston 107 spent the second half in the locker room with an illness, another hit for an already short-handed team.
Quinn Cook scored 16 of his career-high 28 points in a dominant third quarter for Golden State, Draymond Green narrowly missed a triple-double and the severely depleted Warriors handed Phoenix its eighth straight loss and 23rd in 25 games. —