CLEVELAND — It was Mo Williams’ first game against his former team, but LeBron James, as he does so often, ended up stealing the show.
Scoring 41 points for the third time in the last four games, James led the Cavaliers to their fifth straight victory, a 99-93 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday at Quicken Loans Arena.
“I’m not doing it on purpose, I’ll tell you that,” James said of his 41-point outbursts. “I’m just trying to get wins. As a team, we didn’t play the best, but we did a nice job down the stretch.”
Actually, James, who was 16-of-24 from the field and 8-of-10 at the line while adding five rebounds and six assists, and Anderson Varejao, who had eight of his 13 points and six of his 10 rebounds in the fourth quarter, did a nice job down the stretch.
Without the efforts of “The Sure Thing” and “The Wild Thing,” the Cavs (6-2) might have lost to the Bucks (3-5), who aren’t very good to begin with and worse when leading scorer Michael Redd is out with a sprained ankle, as he was Tuesday.
“I’ll always take a win, but we still need to get better,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “Tonight shows it. … We’d be mistaken if we got caught up in the wins that we’ve had and don’t understand there’s still room for improvement.”
With Ben Wallace (0 points, 4 rebounds) and Wally Szczerbiak (0 points) virtually invisible and the struggling Daniel “Boobie” Gibson missing all eight of his shots, including six 3-point attempts, James realized early on that this was a night where he had to put his teammates on his back.
Brown realized it as well, as James played 43 minutes — it was the first time this season he reached 40 — and did not come out in the second half.
“Tonight, we needed all the 42 minutes, 46 seconds he played,” Brown said. “We just didn’t have any life, any energy out on the floor. He was the spark.”
James was at his best over the final 14 minutes, when he torched the Bucks for 18 points.
“He had 41 and he made it look easy,” Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles said.
After the Bucks went up three, the 6-foot-8, 250-pound James scored six points in the final two minutes of the third period, then poured in 12 more in the fourth. With 4:49 to go in the game, he came up with a steal and soared in for a dunk to put the Cavs up 90-83, then did a little shimmy-shake prior to hitting a jumper on the next possession to make it a nine-point game.
“It was one of those games where you have to will it and use your energy,” James said. “Hopefully, your teammates will follow you.”
After getting most of his points early in the season on drives to the hoop, James was effective from long-range against the Bucks, who used multiple defenders in an attempt to keep him on the perimeter. James dominating the ball outside isn’t usually the ideal situation for the Cavs, but on this night the 23-year-old simply took matters into his own hands.
“I’ve been kind of feeling it,” James said. “I’ll take the ball in the backcourt when I’m in a zone like that.”
Playing with an upset stomach, Williams added 16 points and five assists for the Cavs, but he was just 3-of-11 from the field and not a serious factor in the outcome. He did convert 9-of-10 free throws, with his lone miss making him 25-of-26 for the season and costing fans the free Taco Bell chalupa coupons they receive when Cleveland scores 100 points.
“Does it feel good to beat them? Yeah,” Williams said. “I think it would have felt a whole lot worse if we had lost. … We beat a team that was without its best player, which is what we’re supposed to do.”
The Cavs also got 15 points and 10 rebounds from Zydrunas Ilgauskas and 11 points and five assists from Delonte West, but they would have been in a lot of trouble without James and Varejao, who was 5-of-5 from the field.
Not only did Wallace, Williams, Gibson and Szczerbiak combine to go 3-of-25 from the field, the Cavs were clobbered on the boards for the third straight game, this time 45-36.
“When we find ourselves against teams we feel like we can beat, that we are better than, we tend to wait and turn it up in the fourth quarter,” Williams said. “I don’t think that’s good for us for what we’re trying to do in the long run.
“Sometimes it feels good to sit and joke in the fourth quarter.”

Tip-ins

Richard Jefferson, who was invisible for three quarters, had 14 mostly meaningless points in the fourth and ended up leading Milwaukee with 19. Charlie Villanueva had 10 points in the first period, but wound up with just 12 on 4-of-15 shooting.
• James has scored 20 points or more in the second half of the last four games.
• Cleveland is 22-5 when James scores 40 points or more.
• Prior to tipoff, current Cavs radio play-by-play man and former Indians announcer Joe Tait paid tribute to longtime Tribe radio voice Herb Score, who died Tuesday at the age of 75. The crowd responded with a standing ovation.

Golden Nuggets

The Cavs will host the Denver Nuggets at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Since James and Denver’s Carmelo Anthony came into the league in 2003, Cleveland is 2-8 against the Nuggets, who have won the last five meetings. Denver was 3-3 overall this season heading into a game Tuesday in Charlotte, including 2-0 with recently acquired point guard Chauncey Billups in uniform.
In their most recent game prior to Tuesday, against Memphis, the Nuggets were plus-28 with Billups on the floor and minus-18 with him on the bench. Denver has been starting Anthony (23.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 5.0 apg), Linas Kleiza (8.2 ppg), Nene (16.2 ppg, 9.0 rpg), Dahntay Jones (9.2 ppg) and Billups (14.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 7.0 apg).
The Nuggets’ top reserves are Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman.
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

Cavs 99, Bucks 93

MILWAUKEE (93): Jefferson 6-12 5-5 19, Villanueva 4-15 4-4 12, Bogut 2-7 1-2 5, Bell 5-11 1-2 13, Ridnour 6-16 2-2 17, Mbah a Moute 1-4 5-8 7, Sessions 3-9 4-4 10, Elson 2-3 2-2 6, Alexander 1-2 2-2 4. Totals 30-79 26-31 93.
CLEVELAND (99): James 16-24 8-10 41, Wallace 0-3 0-0 0, Ilgauskas 6-10 3-3 15, West 5-7 0-0 11, M.Williams 3-11 9-10 16, Gibson 0-8 0-0 0, Szczerbiak 0-3 0-2 0, Varejao 5-5 3-3 13, Pavlovic 0-0 2-2 2, Hickson 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 35-72 26-32 99.
Milwaukee    18     24     29     22    —    93
Cleveland    23     25     26     25    —    99
3-Point Goals—Milwaukee 7-16 (Ridnour 3-6, Jefferson 2-3, Bell 2-4, Villanueva 0-3), Cleveland 3-20 (West 1-3, James 1-4, M.Williams 1-5, Szczerbiak 0-2, Gibson 0-6). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Milwaukee 56 (Villanueva 10), Cleveland 41 (Varejao, Ilgauskas 10). Assists—Milwaukee 16 (Ridnour, Villanueva, Sessions 4), Cleveland 20 (James 6). Total Fouls—Milwaukee 26, Cleveland 23. Technicals—Milwaukee coach Skiles, Milwaukee defensive three second, Cleveland defensive three second 2. A—19,842 (20,562). 

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