LeBron James scored 40 points and took over in the fourth quarter as the Cleveland Cavaliers maintained home-court advantage by beating the Bulls 112-102 Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference playoffs. James added eight rebounds and eight assists for the Cavs, who led 96-93 with 4:30 left before the league's soon-to-be-two-time Most Valuable Player decided to dominate. James dropped a 3-pointer that he capped with a quick dance move and wink toward Chicago's bench, made two free throws, a layup and two jumpers, scoring 11 straight as Cleveland opened a 107-98 lead with 1:36 left. Game 3 is Thursday night in Chicago. Jazz 114, Nuggets 111: At Denver, Deron Williams scored 33 points and the injury-plagued Utah Jazz defeated Denver 114-11 to level their first-round NBA Western Conference playoff series at one victory each. Williams, who was 16-of-18 from the free throw line, shook off a sore ankle for a starring performance for Utah, which also had 20 points from Carlos Boozer and 18 from Paul Millsap. The Jazz seized a 14-point lead only to fall behind 102-98 with 4:30 to play before rallying in the final minutes to level the series as they head back to Salt Lake City for game three Friday. “We got up and blew the lead but we got it back and kept our composure,” Williams said. “We've got a lot of basketball to be played.” The Jazz were without Turkish forward Mehmet Okur, who suffered a season-ending torn left Achilles' tendon in the opening loss to Denver, and Russian forward Andrei Kirilenko, who aggravated a calf injury Thursday. “When you lose players you can't get down on yourself and go home. You have to come out and play,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. Sloan, the longest-tenured coach in American sport, was impressed with how his team handled the comeback after squandering a large fourth-quarter lead. “They are terrific team and they can score pretty easily,” Sloan said. “Instead of burying ourselves, we did a good job of executing and getting our shots.” Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points but fouled out in the final seconds. The Nuggets fell to 1-11 all-time in games when Anthony fouls out.
