Cavs use huge fourth quarter to down Spurs

Hughes finished 6-of-12 shooting with five rebounds and three assists while LeBron James led the Cavaliers with 19 points. Drew Gooden netted 10 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas added eight points and grabbed 13 boards in the win.

Cleveland, which has won four of its last five games, shot just 36 percent from the floor.

Tony Parker poured in a game-high 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting for the Spurs, who lost for only the third time in 10 contests. Tim Duncan chipped in with 18 points while pulling down 15 boards for a San Antonio club which finished 38 percent shooting.

After an unimpressive and low-scoring third quarter by both teams, the Spurs held a 50-44 edge entering the final frame, but surrendered the lead and gave away the game.

Cleveland scored eight of the first 10 points in the fourth and tied the game at 52 on a Hughes three. The contest remained deadlocked until Hughes converted a three-point play to give the Cavaliers the lead, 60-57, with 7:35 to play.

Minutes later, Damon Jones capped a 12-2 spurt with a pair of hits from the charity stripe to put Cleveland up by seven, 66-59. The technical free throws were a result of San Antonio head coach Greg Popovich’s ejection for arguing with officials.

With just under two minutes left, Parker drained two free throws to get the Spurs within three at 70-67, but Jones came right back and scored five of the Cavaliers’ next seven points to make it 77-69 with 37 seconds left.

Parker then hit a driving layup to cut San Antonio’s deficit to 81-78, however, James nailed a key free throw to seal the victory.

The Spurs went up 21-15 in the first quarter after a Matt Bonner three- pointer, but the Cavaliers tied the game when Daniel Gibson and Donyell Marshall drilled treys late in the period.

San Antonio opened the second with a 10-0 burst for a 31-21 lead with 8:13 remaining. Then, with 26 seconds left until halftime, Gooden’s layup cut Cleveland’s deficit to 40-33 going into the locker room.

Both teams performed poorly in the third quarter as the Cavaliers netted just 11 points while the Spurs were held to a season-low 10 points.

Game Notes

Jones finished with 11 points...Bonner ended with eight points...Anderson Varejao had eight points and seven rebounds for Cleveland...The Cavaliers improved to 14-3 at home this year...The Spurs have dropped six of their last nine trips to Cleveland.