Mavs too good for Cavs, even with James on song

DALLAS - HERE IS how well the Dallas Mavericks are playing: Even on one of his best nights, LeBron James could not take them down.

He had 39 points, combining eye-popping dunks with all sorts of other scoring tactics, and defended tremendously against Dirk Nowitzki with the game on the line.

But James missed two free throws and a pair of three-pointers in the final 13.7 seconds.

This let the Mavericks slip past the Cleveland Cavaliers 95-92 on Thursday for their franchise record-tying 14th straight victory.

'It wasn't the prettiest win in that streak, but a win is a win,' Mavs forward Jerry Stackhouse said.

'LeBron is tough to guard - so strong, so talented. We all had an emphasis on trying to slow him down and he still almost had 40.'

Cleveland coach Mike Brown called it James' second-best performance of the season, insisting that 'LeBron's intensity kept us in it'.

James himself acknowledged it was 'the best I've felt in a while'.

But it was still not enough, not against a team who have now won 21 straight at home.

'They have a lot of weapons. They're definitely the favourites in the West,' James said.

The difference was balance.

The Mavericks got 24 points from Nowitzki, 20 from Jason Terry and 17 from Josh Howard, plus 10 each from Stackhouse and Erick Dampier.

Even DeSagana Diop chipped in with a season-high eight points.

With Cleveland's second-leading scorer Larry Hughes out with the flu, James' four fellow starters combined for 22 points.

That included zilch from centre Zydrunas Ilgauskas in 19 minutes and 11 from Hughes' replacement, Sasha Pavlovic.

Nowitzki and Terry each scored 10 in the fourth quarter.

However, Nowitzki was 0-for-3, with two fouls and a turnover, plus a 24-second violation for the team, over the final 5:11, once James got in his way.

Dallas led 92-82 with 4:08 left following a three-pointer by Terry, but James answered with a three-pointer of his own.

He later added a three-point play to get Cleveland within three with 41 seconds left.

After a defensive stand by the Cavaliers, James streaked for a lay-up. But Nowitzki shoved him out of bounds so hard he went sprawling into the seats behind the basket.

Once he gathered himself, he missed both foul shots.

Cleveland got the ball back out of bounds at mid-court and James quickly put up a potentially score-tying three-pointer.

The rebound bounced back to him and he had another chance to set up and shoot, but again came up short.

'I got good looks on both shots,' James said. 'I'll take those looks any day.'

Dallas already had streaks of 12 and 13 wins earlier this season, so hitting 14 seems like a natural progression.

The Mavs have lost only twice since Dec 11.

They first won 14 straight games at the start of the 2002-03 season. The bid for No15 comes at home tonight against Orlando.

In his only appearance this year in Dallas, James gave fans what they wanted to see.

These included a powerful dunk from the baseline that sent half of Cleveland's bench to their feet in awe.

Then a terrific spin-move to free himself from All-Star Howard during a one-on-one breakaway and several long-striding moves through traffic.

And that was just the first half.

Diop came up big as well.

Entering the game with the Mavericks down by a point late in the first quarter, he scored all eight of his points in eight minutes.

He denied the Cavaliers several times on the defensive end, putting the Mavs up by 10. He even had two assists in the spurt.

'Hey, they didn't play me for four years,' said Diop, a former lottery pick who spent four lacklustre seasons in Cleveland before emerging last year in Dallas.

'Whenever you play your old team, you know what they do and you're motivated.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS