Cavs still in fight

LeBron's triple-double too much for Magic in Game 5

CLEVELAND: The Cavaliers walked on the court Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena with not only their championship hopes, but also those of a region, resting squarely on their collective shoulders.

Win and live to play another day against the Orlando Magic. Lose and call it a season, one filled with records never completely validated by winning a ring.

The Cavs will return to Orlando for another game Saturday after beating the Magic 112-102. They still trail the Magic 3-2 in the best-of-seven NBA Eastern Conference finals.

LeBron James posted the fourth triple-double of his playoff career with 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists. But it was a night for a return to Cavaliers basketball. Three other Cavs starters scored in double figures, and Daniel Gibson gave the team double digits off the bench.

''That's big,'' James said. ''That's what we got all year from our complementary players. Mo [Williams] came out and was aggressive once again. Ben Wallace played strong in the post against Dwight. Daniel
Gibson gave us big minutes and made some big shots.''

Hedo Turkoglu led the Magic with 29 points and six rebounds.

There's little denying that urgency was the word of the night as the Cavs played that way from the tipoff, getting off to a quick start.

Led by Williams, who looked as if he had much to prove, the Cavs raced to a double-digit lead in the first quarter with Williams making 4-of-6 shots.

His teammates mimicked Williams, and the Cavs built the lead to 22 points. Every negative trend and tendency they'd displayed through the series disappeared — at least for 12 minutes.

Williams had 11 points, and James tossed in 10 in the quarter.

''I thought Mo was big the entire game,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said. ''His energy, his mental awareness was terrific running the ball game the entire game.''

As they had done time and time again in the series, the Magic came back strong.

In the second quarter, the Magic whittled the lead all the way to one point.

After shooting the lights out to start, the Cavs struggled in the second quarter, making just 6-of-16 shots (38 percent). The Magic made 14-of-25 for 56 percent.

Magic center Dwight Howard and forward Rashard Lewis led the way.

The half ended with the Cavs ahead 56-55, and a familiar sense of impending doom hit for those in attendance.

The opening moments of the third quarter only heightened that feeling. The Magic scored the first nine points before Williams stopped the run.



Williams continued to make big shots, and the Cavs quickly got back in the game. One of them came with the Cavs behind by six. Getting a pass from forward Anderson Varejao, Williams made his fifth 3-point shot of the game to cut the deficit in half.

When James made a jump shot midway through the quarter to give the Cavs a one-point lead at 68-67, the arena crowd erupted and the momentum shifted.

''Big plays were the difference,'' Williams said. ''Those are the plays that they have been making. Those big plays, those big stops, those big shots. We made them tonight.''

The Magic, however, ended the quarter leading by a point at 79-78.

Opening the fourth quarter with an 8-1 run, the Cavs couldn't quite make it easy on themselves. With the Cavs leading 86-82, they looked for the one 3-point shot to put them closer to a double-digit lead. First came a miss by Daniel Gibson. After a rebound by Varejao, Delonte West misfired on another 3-point attempt.

The Magic raced down the court, and Mickael Pietrus nailed a 3-pointer in transition that brought the Magic back within one. It served to add just a touch more drama when just a little patience might have proved to be more effective.

That's the route the Cavs took on subsequent possessions. After the Magic took a one-point lead at 90-89, the Cavs went on a 10-4 run to take a 99-93 lead. A three-point play by James, who was fouled by Howard, pushed the lead to 102-93 and sent Howard to the bench with his sixth foul.

James wasn't finished. On the Cavs' next possession, James made a jump shot to make the score 104-96 and give the Cavs some much-needed breathing room with 1:45 left in the game. It allowed them to hold the Magic at bay for the rest of the game.

''As poorly as we played, we were still there with chances to win with about five minutes to go and just didn't get it done,'' Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.