CLEVELAND — Remember “The Gong Show” from the 1970s?
The Cavaliers staged their own version of it Thursday night in blowing a 17-point lead and losing 101-98 to the Chicago Bulls at Quicken Loans Arena.
It started, fittingly enough, when 6-foot-9 power forward Ben Wallace missed a dunk with 2:20 to go. Certain the slam was going in, the game-night operations crew had already hit the Big Ben chime that rings every time Wallace does something positive. The sound was quickly halted, but it still drew loud laughter from the 20,562 fans in attendance.
Wallace wasn’t dragged off the stage like contestants were in the old half-hour talent show, but the dark comedy continued when Delonte West threw the ball away while trying to force a pass to LeBron James on the wing. West then made an even bigger gaffe by fouling Ben Gordon, a 91.4 percent free throw shooter, on a 3-point attempt.
That was followed by James airballing a long 3-point attempt while trying to beat the shot clock, Wally Szczerbiak missing an open
20-footer, James missing a short, twisting shot after driving left in the closing seconds and Daniel Gibson — the third-best 3-point shooter in the league — bricking a wide-open three at the buzzer.
“Every game is frustrating to lose at home,” Szczerbiak said. “As good as we are at home, we don’t expect to lose at all. That was very evident by how quiet the locker room was after the game.
“At the same time, we have to learn from it. We have to go back and watch the tape and see how we can not allow them to make up a 17-point lead on our home floor. There were a lot of mistakes that put us in position to have the game come down to one possession at the end. Hopefully, we can get it taken care of and figure it out.”
Adding injury to insult, James experienced back spasms in the second half, was worked on in the tunnel outside the Cleveland locker room at the end of the third quarter and scored just one point in the final quarter on 0-of-5 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 at the line.
“I don’t remember what play it was,” James said when asked how he got hurt. “It just started (to spasm). If you ask anybody how bad that is for me, being the explosive player I am, it was tough to do some of the things I wanted to do, especially in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, I can try and get it better and get it ready for (today).”
The Cavs, who did not practice Friday, host the Orlando Magic at 3 p.m. today. If they’re going to beat the No. 3 team in the Eastern Conference, they’ll have to score more than the 13 points they got on 6-of-23 shooting in the fourth quarter against Chicago. They also can’t allow the Magic to shoot 63 percent in the second half, as the Bulls did.
“At times, we allowed them to make shots without us pressuring them defensively,” James said. “You can’t let a team like that hang around because they can make big shots.”
Gordon — who had 24 points off the bench — hurt the Cavs in the fourth quarter, while former Cleveland guard Larry Hughes put up 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting, eight rebounds and nine assists.
Today, the Cavs’ chief concern will be the inside power of Dwight Howard. If he gets it going and Orlando starts bombing in 3-pointers, “The Gong Show” could continue.
“You want to win every game,” James said. “Being up 17 or being up one, you still have to execute. It’s a little frustrating, but at the same time you have to learn from it.
“We only have a few games left (6). Hopefully, we can get in tune and prepare ourselves to go into the playoffs with the right mindset.”

Tip-ins

An obviously rusty Gibson is 4-of-17 from the field, including 2-of-10 from behind the arc, in four games since returning from the sprained ankle that caused him to miss five weeks. He’s scored 11 points.
• Sasha Pavlovic, who had been starting, and Damon Jones, who had been playing well off the bench, have fallen totally out of coach Mike Brown’s rotation.
• For the season, James is averaging 30.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists in 40 minutes a game.
• As expected, the Cavs signed center Lance Allred, whose second 10-day contract expired after the game Thursday, for the rest of the season.
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net. 

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