Cavs Lose To New Orleans

By: Associated Press | NBC4i.com
Published: March 27, 2008

CLEVELAND -- David West's 17-foot jumper, coming on Chris Paul's 20th assist, with less than a second left gave the New Orleans Hornets their fifth straight win, 100-99 over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.

Paul drove left, picked up a screen against LeBron James and drew three defenders in the lane before spinning around and whipping a pass back to West. The Hornets' All-Star forward then calmly dropped his jumper with 0.6 seconds left.

Cleveland inbounded the ball to James, whose 75-foot heave at the horn bounced off the 24-second clock at the other end. James, who barked in frustration at teammates earlier in the fourth quarter, punched his hand in his fist and complained to assistant coach Mike Malone before heading to the locker room.

Peja Stojakovic scored 25 points - 18 on 3-pointers - West added 20 points and Paul 15 for the Hornets, who came in with the Western Conference's best record and improved to 2-0 on a six-game road trip against Eastern Conference teams.

New Orleans, playing the second game of a back-to-back, snapped Cleveland's nine-game home winning streak.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored a season-high 29 points with 15 rebounds. James had 21 points and eight assists but wasn't able to get a defensive stop in the closing seconds against Paul, one of his closest friends. Anderson Varejao added 15 rebounds for the Cavaliers.

Two free throws by James brought Cleveland within 96-95, but the Cavaliers couldn't get a rebound at the other end and Tyson Chandler's putback dunk put the Hornets ahead by three with 47 seconds remaining.

Following a timeout, James missed a left-handed layup but Ilgauskas was there to tip it in to make it 98-97. On the Hornets' next trip, Jannero Pargo was left wide open in the corner on another bad defensive rotation by Cleveland but missed a 3-pointer.

James then drove past Stojakovic for a layup with 7.7 seconds left to give Cleveland a 99-98 lead. But the Cavaliers couldn't prevent the ultra-quick Paul from getting deep penetration on the Hornets' last possession, leaving West wide open.

The Cavaliers had expected to have back guard Daniel Gibson, who has been sidelined since Feb. 20 with a badly sprained left ankle. However, with a favorable break in the schedule - Cleveland doesn't play again until Saturday - the Cavs decided to give him and center Ben Wallace, nursing a sore back, more rest.

Cleveland could have used someone to slow Paul, who finished one assist shy of his season high.

With the MVP candidate orchestrating everything for New Orleans' offense and Pargo making three 3-pointers while playing the entire second quarter, the Hornets, one of the league's best perimeter shooting teams, opened a 56-50 lead at halftime.

Paul, who had 11 assists at the break, toyed with any defender the Cavaliers put on him defensively. He dribbled in and out of traffic effortlessly while always looking for an open teammate.