CLEVELAND — LeBron James shouldn’t have had to play 37 minutes, but at least he made them memorable.
The no-killer-instinct Cavaliers led the Atlanta Hawks by 23 points in the second quarter and by 28 in the third before suffering their customary lapse, but James made his final sensational play of the evening to set things right in what ended up being a 110-96 Cleveland victory Saturday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
After the Hawks (8-5) pulled within 11 with 6:39 to go in the game, James drove left around 6-foot-10 Tito Horford, hung in the air and dunked left-handed while being fouled so hard by 6-10 Solomon Jones that his headband flew off and his mouthpiece came out.
“I lost all that stuff,” James said. “I would have lost my jersey too if it wasn’t tight.”
James, who had 19 of his 24 points in the second half, ended up making the free throw to give the Cavaliers (10-3) a 14-point lead and they never looked back en route to improving to 7-0 at home.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” James said of his slam. “I just made that one up.”
The 6-8, 250-pounder, who also finished with seven rebounds and eight assists, was certain of one thing, though.
“I was going to get something,” James said. “I just wanted to get to the basket. There were a few people down there, but I’ve seen a few people down there before.”
James started adding to his personal highlight reel early in the game by cutting down the lane, taking a bounce pass from Zydrunas Ilgauskas, then quickly dropping the ball off to Ben Wallace for a dunk.
In the second quarter, the Akron native streaked down the floor and hammered home a lob from Mo Williams.
In the third period, after Wallace blocked a shot by Zaza Pachulia, James threw down a long lob from Delonte West.
All that turned out to be simply a warmup, as James followed his left-hand slam in traffic by faking a behind-the-back pass to Ilgauskas, then cupping the ball for a windmill slam.
“Sometimes you want to get the momentum going your way,” James said of his big dunks. “I enjoy them.”
So does everyone else at The Q, including James’ teammates.
“I’ve been on the opposite end of that,” West said. “I hope whoever is underneath doesn’t try to be a hero and just gets out of the way.”
The Hawks, who were minus power forward Josh Smith (sprained ankle), had no chance of getting in the Cavaliers’ way.
In addition to James, Cleveland got 23 points, five rebounds and four assists from Williams; 19 points, five assists and exceptional defense from West; and 17 points and seven boards from Ilgauskas.
“I’m impressed with my team,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. “We’ve done a nice job of building good habits.”
The one bad habit Cleveland still has is not being able to finish teams off, but, in the end, Atlanta’s rally merely made the final score respectable.
The Cavaliers scored on their first four possessions and jumped to leads of 11-0, 28-10 and 39-16 before settling for a 49-32 lead at intermission.
The Hawks, who had just 12 points in the first quarter, missed 20 of their first 25 shots.
The 6-7 Johnson, Atlanta’s leading scorer on the season, tried to post up the 6-3 West early on, but Ilgauskas came over to help every time Johnson put the ball on the floor.
With the long-armed West more than doing his part, Johnson was 1-of-8 from the field in a four-point first half, then didn’t attempt a shot while playing sparingly after intermission.
“Delonte has stuck his nose in there and made his guy work,” Brown said. “I’ve got to applaud him for that.”
The Hawks, who also kept Pachulia and point guard Mike Bibby on the bench for most of the second half, were fueled by reserves Maurice Evans (21 points) and Acie Law (20 points, six rebounds, seven assists).

Summer of 2010

As soon as the New York Knicks traded Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins to the Los Angeles Clippers for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas and dealt Jamal Crawford to Golden State for Al Harrington, Big Apple talk turned to all the salary cap room the Knicks will have to make a run at James in the summer of 2010.
“They didn’t even talk about the guys who are coming,” a bemused James said.
Talk about James’ future will likely increase in coming days, as Cleveland plays in New York on Tuesday. Asked if repeatedly answering the same questions about his future bothers him, James smiled and said no, adding that “2010 is a big summer.”
The Knicks are talking about not only making a run at James, but also clearing enough cap space to land Toronto’s Chris Bosh or Miami’s Dwyane Wade. James, however, is New York’s primary target, and at least one NBA player thinks they will get him.
“It’s all about how you play your cards right now,” New Jersey forward Bobby Simmons told the Newark Star-Ledger. “There’s only one team that this guy is going to. I don’t know why everybody’s making a big deal about it. I’m just saying: You know he’s going to the biggest market, to play for the Knicks.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

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