Jones Makes Cavaliers Even More Dangerous

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TweetJones Makes Cavaliers Even More Dangerous



CHICAGO - It didn't take long for LeBron James to warm up to Damon Jones. Jones, signed by Cleveland in September as a free agent, is giving the Cavaliers a consistent perimeter threat. That's made things easier for James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.



"That's something we didn't have last year: a guy that can spread the floor and open the lane for me and Z," James said. "You see how open the lane is for me and Z now."

James scored 37 points, Ilgauskas added 25 and Jones hit three consecutive 3-pointers during a 15-0 fourth-quarter run as the Cavaliers (15-9) won their fourth straight with a 108-100 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.

"If we execute and share the basketball and move bodies, then we are a tough team to defend because we have a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things on the offensive end," Jones said. "Defensively, we turned it up and held them to one shot, and because of it, we got momentum."

James, the NBA's third-leading scorer, was 12-for-25 from the floor — including 4-of-6 on 3-pointers. Ilgauskas shot 11-of-11 from the foul line, and grabbed 11 rebounds. Jones finished with 15 points while shooting 5-for-11 from beyond the arc.

"He made big shots," James said. "I'm happy he's on our side now."

In the only other game Thursday night, it was Dallas 105, Sacramento 95.

At Chicago, Larry Hughes started and scored nine points for Cleveland after missing Wednesday's practice to tend to his ailing brother in St. Louis — who had a heart transplant 10 years ago.

After two free throws by Eric Snow, a steal and layup by James and a basket by Ilgauskas cut the Bulls' lead to 81-80, Jones went to work.

His 3 with 8:17 left put the Cavaliers ahead, and he hit another to make it a five-point game. Chicago's Chris Duhon then threw a bad pass, which led to another 3 by Jones that made it 89-81 with 7:05 left.

As important as those 3s were the four steals the Cavaliers got during that run.

"It was just about getting defensive stops," James said. "We didn't shoot the ball as well as we wanted to in the third quarter. We made a few subs, we got defensive stops and hit big buckets."

Cleveland outscored Chicago 37-21 in the fourth.

"We have to be able to make adjustments during the game," said Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich, who had eight points and seven assists. "When things aren't going as well as we would like them to, we (need) to come together as a group and start competing harder — that's when you should start fighting harder."

Ben Gordon scored 22 points to lead the Bulls, and Andres Nocioni had a season-high 21 — including 11 in the third quarter.

However, the Bulls couldn't stop the Cavaliers from penetrating.

Cleveland was 33-of-41 on free throws, while the Bulls were 8-for-10.

"I think we played our game, got inside," Gordon said. "Some calls didn't go our way."

Second to Detroit in 3-point shooting, the Bulls hit just 8-of-21 against a Cleveland team that had allowed opponents to shoot a league-high 40.2 percent from beyond the arc.

Mavericks 105, Kings 95

At Sacramento, Calif., Dirk Nowitzki scored a season-high 37 points and had 10 rebounds to lift the Mavericks.

The Mavericks rebounded from their embarrassing 122-90 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers two nights earlier.

Nowitzki scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, including 11 straight that broke an 85-85 tie. His final two points came on a baseline jumper that put Dallas ahead 96-85 with 2:35 left.

Mike Bibby scored 22 points for the Kings, who lost their fourth straight.

[Testify]

TweetToo bad Jones doesn't play ANY defense. Its like playing 5-on-4 when he's in the game.