Cavs stay perfect at home with win over Heat

The Cleveland Cavaliers used a fourth quarter rally and a big game from LeBron James to defeat the Miami Heat by a 93-86 score at the Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday.  The victory kept the Cavs perfect at home and improved their record to 26-4, allowing them to keep pace with the 28-4 Boston Celtics for Eastern Conference dominance.

Cleveland took a two point lead into the locker room after a closely contested first half.  The third quarter was all Miami, however, as the Heat took a nine point lead into the fourth quarter.  For the second straight game, Cleveland used a torrid final period to propel themselves to victory.  The Cavs held a 35-19 edge in the fourth quarter and used an 18-2 run early in the period to reverse an eight point deficit. 

For most of the game, Dwayne Wade was unstoppable for the Heat and he finished with 29 points and 8 assists.  LeBron James, meanwhile, led all scorers with 33 points along with 9 assists and six rebounds.  Mo Williams added 20 points for Cleveland and Ben Wallace pulled down 14 boards to go with three blocked shots.

After the game, LeBron spoke of the home fans growing awareness of the undefeated run:

"You can tell the fans are into it. They don't want us to lose all season. It's the third quarter and they're getting a little antsy, we can hear it."

He also commended the Heat’s Dwayne Wade:

"It's still tough to get a stop on D-Wade. If he's not scoring, he's setting guys up to score. We've been in a lot of big games and we've gone against some of the top players in the game and tried to contain them. You can't stop D-Wade."

Cleveland will now travel to South Florida for the back end of a “home and home” series with the Heat on Tuesday night.  After that, they’ll return home for a game against the Chicago Bulls on Friday before heading back out on the road for a game in the nation’s capital against the Washington Wizards on Sunday.  After hosting the Cavs the Heat will take a short jaunt up the Florida turnpike for a game against the Orlando Magic on Friday before returning home to host the New Jersey Nets on Saturday.