CLEVELAND — Daniel Gibson is thankful he’s on the same team as Anderson Varejao.

Otherwise, he might get as annoyed and frustrated as New York’s Tyson Chandler became Wednesday night in the Cavaliers’ 91-81 victory over the Knicks at Quicken Loans Arena.

“I run past a guy and I can hear him mumbling things under his breath,” Gibson said with a smile. “I tell (Varejao), ‘I don’t know what you’re doing, but keep doing it.’ I’ve heard it plenty of times.”

Now in his eighth season with the Cavs, Varejao made his presence felt from start to finish as Cleveland (7-10) ended a four-game losing streak and sent New York (7-11) to its seventh defeat in eight games.

The relentless Brazilian finished with 10 points,

16 rebounds, four assists, four steals, five turnovers and two blocks in 37 minutes.

“He’s a stat sheet stuffer,” Cavs coach Byron Scott said.

Eight of Varejao’s rebounds came on the offensive glass, where he pursued virtually every missed Cleveland shot.

That non-stop hustle finally got the best of Chandler with 5:03 left in the game, as he raised a forearm toward Varejao’s face while attempting to box him out on a free throw.

Whether Chandler made significant contact is uncertain, but the flailing Varejao sold it to the officials and Chandler was called for a technical foul.

“That shouldn’t have been a technical foul,” Chandler said. “He’s on my back on every play and free throw. I’m just trying to get him off (my back) so he doesn’t get an offensive rebound. … Hopefully, the league looks at it and sees what really happened.”

Not long after that sequence, Chandler complained again when he got tangled with Varejao at New York’s end of the floor. Advantage, Varejao.

“I do,” the 29-year-old Varejao said when asked if he senses when he’s getting under an opposing player’s skin. “It’s nothing I work on or anything. I play hard and I go for every offensive rebound. If you go 10 times and get two, you’re going to get somebody frustrated.”

What happened to Chandler has happened to plenty of players, and Gibson is in his sixth season of watching it.

“I’m very thankful he’s been on my team my whole career,” Gibson said. “I can only imagine trying to box him out.

“He’s a special talent. I don’t think he gets enough credit for what he does.”

Making things better for the Cavs, Varejao’s teammates followed his lead as Cleveland won for the first time in five tries on the second night of back-to-back games.

No Cavs player scored more than 15 points — Antawn Jamison had that on 6-for-15 shooting — but plenty of guys made positive contributions.

Omri Casspi and Anthony Parker had 13 points apiece and combined with Alonzo Gee (seven points, six rebounds) to do a solid job on 24.1-point scorer Carmelo Anthony, who finished with 15 points on 5-for-14 shooting.

Ryan Hollins (season-high nine points, zero rebounds), Samardo Samuels (six points, six rebounds) and Gibson (eight points, four rebounds, four assists) were all solid off the bench as Cleveland’s reserves outscored New York’s 33-16.

All that helped atone for a seven-point, 1-for-7 shooting night by Kyrie Irving, who did tie a career high with seven assists, but the biggest key of all was defense.

Other than Amar’e Stoudemire (19 points, 14 rebounds), no Knicks player really got it going on a night when New York committed 23 turnovers — the Cavs had 19 in a very sloppy game — and scored just 36 points in the second half.

Knicks guards were especially bad, with starters Landry Fields and Iman Shumpert combining for three assists and five turnovers in 56 minutes. Backup Toney Douglas was 3-for-12 from the field and hoisted eight 3-pointers, where the Knicks finished 3-for-20 as a team (the Cavs were 9-for-20).

“We reaped the benefits of getting back to basics and playing good, hard-nosed defense,” Scott said.

Up 27-23 after one period, the Cavs were outscored 17-4 over the first 8 1/2 minutes of the second quarter, but came right back with a 14-1 run before settling for a 45-45 tie at intermission.

Cleveland then scored the first five points of the third period and, while never really pulling away, led the rest of the game.

“We knew we had to do something different tonight to try to win this game,” Varejao said. “We just tried to play hard.”

Second chances

The Cavs have won nine straight home games against the Knicks. New York’s last win at The Q was Nov. 29, 2006.

**Casspi received six stitches under his chin after an inadvertent elbow from Fields. Casspi was actually called for a foul when he went for a pump-fake from Fields, who was hoisting a desperation 3-pointer to beat the shot clock.

**The Knicks’ 81 points were a season low for a Cleveland opponent, while their 23 turnovers were an opponent season high.

**Parker’s 13 points were a season high.

**Paid attendance was announced as 16,760.

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.

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