Williams’ halfcourt shot closes out Cavs win
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — LeBron James scored a season-high 44 points and Mo Williams hit a back-breaking halfcourt shot in the fourth quarter to help the Cleveland Cavaliers close out a 102-89 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
Williams tracked down the ball after Thabo Sefolosha had tipped it into the backcourt, then turned and fired a 48-footer with coach Mike Brown yelling to him as the shot clock ran down. The shot earned him a look of disbelief and a congratulatory hand slap from James, and it gave Cleveland its largest lead to that point at 94-87.
Williams finished with 22 points, half of them coming in the fourth quarter.
Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 29 points and Jeff Green scored a season-high 26. Russell Westbrook added 10 points.
Grizzlies 118, Heat 90
At Miami, Rudy Gay scored a career-high 41 points and Marc Gasol made all seven of his shots on the way to a 16-point, 15-rebound effort as Memphis enjoyed a rare road win.
Gay made 15 of 28 shots, topping his previous career best by five points, and became just the fourth player since January 2007 to score at least 40 against Miami in a regular-season game. Jamal Crawford (40) did so on Dec 1, 2008, while LeBron James (42) and Ben Gordon (43)
each accomplished the feat last March.
Memphis also got 16 points from OJ Mayo and 13 from Zach Randolph.
Dwyane Wade scored 25 points for Miami.
Hawks 130, Nets 107
At Atlanta, Maurice Evans scored 22 points, and Joe Johnson added 21 points and 10 assists to help Atlanta win its fourth straight.
Devin Harris, who started despite a sprained left pinky finger, scored 23 points for the Nets, who allowed a season high in points in their third consecutive loss — dropping the NBA’s worst record to 2-22.
Raptors 101, Rockets 88
At Toronto, Chris Bosh led Toronto with 27 points, Hedo Turkoglu had a season-high 23, and Jarrett Jack added 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists as Toronto downed Houston.
Carl Landry scored 25 points for Houston, and Luis Scola had 21 points and 15 rebounds.
Spurs 115, Clippers 90
At Los Angeles, Tim Duncan scored 21 points before sitting out the fourth quarter to lead San Antonio to victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Duncan departed with 1:48 left in the third quarter after he was accidentally elbowed on the right side of the head by teammate Matt Bonner with the Spurs leading 83-73.
Richard Jefferson and Manu Ginobili each had 17 points for San Antonio, which has won three straight and eight of 11.
Baron Davis finished with 20 points for the Clippers.