LeBron, Cavs blow past Bulls

James had 11 points in the third quarter and 16 in the fourth, and also pulled down nine rebounds and dished out seven assists, as the Cavaliers won back-to- back contests following a five-game skid.

Drew Gooden added 13 points and 11 rebounds, as the Cavs swept the Bulls (4-0) in the season series for the first time since 1998-99. Cleveland moved to 7-1 at home against the Central Division.

"We did a great job on moving our offense and moving all around the court tonight," James said.

Ben Gordon tallied 17 points and Luol Deng ended with 15 points and 12 rebounds for Chicago, which fell for the fourth time in six games. Kirk Hinrich added 15 points, while Darius Songaila scored 14 for the Bulls.

Chicago committed 18 turnovers, leading to 25 Cleveland points. The Bulls were horrendous from the foul line, going 7-for-19.

"We just gave them 25 points off turnovers and it’s tough to win when you do that," Bulls head coach Scott Skiles said. "I’m concerned about this one good half, one bad half routine, one good quarter, one bad quarter that we’ve been in and just the carelessness with the ball. And, a lack of respect for the basketball out there was pretty amateurish."

Sunday’s game was much different than Thursday night’s contest between the two clubs in Chicago, when Ronald Murray drained a three-pointer from deep in the right corner with just 3.9 seconds remaining to lead Cleveland to a 92-91 win.

"We got up double digits against them, and I bet going through everybody’s mind was what happened Thursday when they went on a run," James said. "I didn’t want that to happen. Defensively, I took the challenge of Ben Gordon, and offensively I took the challenge of trying to put them away."

The Cavaliers scored 11 in a row to start the final quarter to extend to a 74-60 lead. James had eight of those points, including a layup with 8:31 remaining that capped the run.

The Bulls didn’t get closer than eight points after that. The last time was 74-66, but Eric Snow converted a jumper and Ronald Murray drained a three- pointer in response.

Cleveland led 21-18 after the opening quarter, but the Bulls had the upperhand by a 42-40 margin at the half and were losing 63-60 going into the fourth.

Game Notes

Sunday marked birthdays for both head coaches, Chicago’s Scott Skiles (42) and Cleveland’s Mike Brown (36)...The Cavs were 11-of-13 at the foul line...Anderson Varejao had 13 rebounds for Cleveland.