Published March 03, 2008 04:07 am - CLEVELAND — Drew Gooden has seen it all before.
LeBron does it again James scores 37, takes over down stretch as the Cavaliers beat Bulls
ASSOCIATED PRESS Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Drew Gooden has seen it all before.
With the game on the line, LeBron James takes over, hits key shots and leads the Cleveland Cavaliers to another victory.
It happened again Sunday, when James scored 37 points, including six in a key stretch late in the game, to lead the Cavaliers over the Chicago Bulls, 95-86.
The only problem for Gooden, part of a three-team, 11-player trade on Feb. 21, is he’s now playing for the Bulls instead of the Cavaliers.
“I know how other teams feel, being on the other end of that stick,” he said. “It’s always about trying to stop LeBron in the end.”
Gooden learned what many other opponents already know. Trying to stop James when it counts isn’t easy.
“I just live for the fourth quarter,” James said. “When the games are close, that’s when I like to do work. We were just able to take the life out of them.”
Cleveland, Chicago and Seattle were involved in the deal. Gooden, Larry Hughes, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown were sent from the Cavaliers to the Bulls, who dealt center Ben Wallace and forward Joe Smith to Cleveland.
James, who went out for a rest late in the third quarter, returned with 9:55 to play in the game and the Cavaliers trailing 76-68. Cleveland outscored the Bulls 27-10 the rest of the way.
The Cavaliers rallied on a 3-pointer by Szczerbiak, six straight points by Smith and a jumper by James to tie it at 79.
With the game tied at 83, James drove past two defenders and scored on a left-handed flip shot in the lane to give Cleveland the lead for good with 3:04 to go.
On the Cavaliers’ next possession, James drove down the right side of the lane, flew to the basket and scored on a dunk with his right hand that that brought the sellout crowd at Quicken Loans Arena to its feet.
The league’s leading scorer wasn’t finished. James created a turnover on Chicago’s next possession and passed the ball to a teammate while lying on the floor. With the Cavaliers setting up on the offensive end and the crowd chanting “MVP!” James buried a 22-footer to give Cleveland a six-point lead with 2:01 left.
“The difficult shots might look difficult, but they’re not to me,” James said. “Taking step-back jumpers, I’ve always done that, or getting to the lane and making flip shots with my left hand.”
And here’s some more bad news for the rest of the NBA.
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