Pelicans survive James’ late surge, beat Cavs 114-108 in OT

The Cavs won the last time the two teams played back in October and James had 29 points in that matchup in Cleveland.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James smiles as he watches from the bench as he sits out the game during the first half of an NBA basketball game between the Miami Heat and the Cavaliers, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, in Miami.

Although the Cavaliers fell to the Pelicans in overtime, they needed a furious rally to even put themselves in a position to win the game.

The Cleveland Cavaliers could use a nice road win after splitting their last six games.

Admittedly, Love didn’t do as poorly as he’d done the previous game against the Washington Wizards, in which he scored only 8 points over the span of 33 minutes. His difficulties have been so severe that contributing 14 points and seven assists in the win over the Thunder represents one of his better outings of the season.

David Liam Kyle/NBAE/Getty Images LeBron James (r.) returns to Miami Saturday night to face his old team. Ironically enough it was the Heat who were full of energy and not the usual James who has some of his best performances inside of the arena. They’ve seen Bron with his new team and we’ll play them (two) more times this year. It is still early in the season, but if Miami is to contend in the East it is going to need much more dynamic play from Dragic. The 114-108 loss to New Orleans came in OT, as Anthony Davis scored 31 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the game.

“We’re not going to overanalyze it”, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Dragic’s improved play. “I believe guys want to play, but guys also want to play the right way”. Bosh shot 5 of 6 for 14 points, including a thunderous fourth-quarter dunk that had James checking the replay screens.

If James noticed, he didn’t flinch from his seat on the sideline.

“It’s totally different”, Cleveland’s J.R. Smith said of playing without James. As he reminded the Heat fans, he’s exhausted in part because he was the best player on a title-winning team.

He went on to add, “It was a situation I felt was not worth risking”. James has been playing at an MVP level this season along with Kevin Love, but Timofey Mozgov has been struggling and the team has dealt with some injuries. Smith added 12, while Jared Cunningham and Matthew Dellavedova each had 11 for the Cavaliers. He finished 7-9 with 19 points while also shooting 4-5 from three. The Pelicans, who have allowed 110 or more points a whopping 10 times, showed signs of solid defense by holding Houston to 17 first-quarter points but then allowed a combined 67 points over the next two quarters. In four years with the Heat, he missed just 18 games. James erupted for 23 of his game-high 37 points in the fourth, including a go-ahead layup against Davis with 30 seconds left.

The Portland Trail Blazers trumped the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-103, the New York Knicks lost 106-91 to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Los Angeles Clippers upstaged the Orlando Magic 103-101 and the Indiana Pacers lost 122-119 to the Utah Jazz in overtime despite a career-high 48 points from Paul George.