Cavs win 9th straight, beat Nets 96-88

The AP reports: LeBron James had 30 points and 11 rebounds, and the Cavaliers won their ninth straight game, beating the New Jersey Nets 96-88 on Sunday night to tie a franchise record with their 57th victory. Ilgauskas added 18 points as the Cavaliers improved the NBA’s best record to 57-13… Vince Carter had 25 points and nine rebounds, but without injured All-Star point guard Devin Harris the Nets simply lacked the firepower to hang with the NBA’s toughest defensive team. .. James finished two assists shy of a fifth triple-double during the winning streak on a night where he was content to let his big men handle the scoring load early. Anderson Varejao finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, helping Cleveland outrebound New Jersey 46-37.

Rockets stun Spurs to claim division lead

The AP reports: Knocking the Spurs from first place in the Southwest Division for the first time since January, Houston capped a furious fourth-quarter rally when Yao Ming fired a perfect pass to Luis Scola underneath with 11.9 seconds left to stun San Antonio 87-85 on Sunday. Ron Artest scored 24 as Houston won its fourth straight and headed to Utah with a half-game division lead over the Spurs. Not since Christmas have the Rockets enjoyed at least a share of first place… Tim Duncan scored 23 points and Tony Parker had 22 and 12 assists for the Spurs, who had appeared to start pulling away midway through the fourth before the Rockets embarked on a 10-2 run.

Bosh lifts Raptors past struggling Clippers 100-76

The AP reports: The Toronto Raptors gave Chris Bosh an early birthday present: a rousing win over the Los Angeles Clippers. Bosh had 16 points and 13 rebounds, Shawn Marion added 14 points and 13 boards and the Raptors routed the struggling Clippers 100-76 Sunday… Jose Calderon scored 15 points, including a rare dunk, and Joey Graham added 13 for the Raptors, who have won five of six against the Clippers… Zach Randolph scored 20 points and Baron Davis added 12 for the Clippers, who have won just two of their past 12… Randolph shot 10-for-17 while the rest of the Clippers combined to go 19-for-58. Davis shot 3-for-15, rookie guard Eric Gordon was 3-for-10 and Marcus Camby finished 2-for-6.

Durant leads Thunder past Wolves 97-90

The AP reports: Kevin Durant had his best game since returning to the Oklahoma City lineup after missing seven games with a bum ankle. But it wasn’t Durant’s 30 points that caught the eye of his coach. “Like I told him before our last game, ‘Kevin, you can fill up the stat sheet, but you don’t have to worry about your points to help us win,”’ Thunder coach Scott Brooks said after the Thunder beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 97-90 on Sunday… Durant had eight rebounds and five assists, and Jeff Green added 17 points for the Thunder, who jumped on the lethargic Timberwolves early to make up for a humiliating, 42-point defeat the last time they visited Minnesota… Craig Smith scored 19 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota and Bobby Brown fueled a late Wolves run with 12 points in the fourth quarter.

Wade, Haslem lead Heat in 101-96 win over Pistons

The AP reports: Dwyane Wade scored 39 points in the first 47 minutes Sunday. In the final minute, he turned into a defensive specialist. Wade blocked two shots in the final 22 seconds and Udonis Haslem scored six points in the last 6.3 as the Miami Heat rallied for a 101-96 victory over the short-handed Detroit Pistons… Detroit was missing three key players—Richard Hamilton (groin), Rasheed Wallace (calf) and Allen Iverson (back)—but took a 96-95 lead on Walter Herrmann’s 3-point shot with 13 seconds left… Stuckey led the Pistons with 24 points, while McDyess had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

LeBron James talks of playing with Dwyane Wade

Sunday evening in New Jersey the Nets are hosting LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Before the game, LeBron spoke with InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner and other reporters.

Dwyane Wade was brought up and it was mentioned (by our main man Ken Berger of CBS) to LeBron that as long as both he and Wade are in the Eastern conference the two can never meet in the Finals.

“I don’t know… it doesn’t matter,” said James. “Whatever happens, we go against each other. Maybe… we’ll play against each other in practice. I don’t know. That’d be fun, wouldn’t it?”

Now, LeBron paused after that “maybe” before the practice statement, as if he was thinking carefully about what he was going to say next, knowing full well media members lik me would relay it back to the entire fan world aned cause about a billion discussions to break out.

After the interview was over, LeBron yelled over to an inquisitive reporter that he did not say that he said he is headed for Miami, but then said that he is not saying Wade is coming to Cleveland.

Then, he left.

Enjoy discussing this, NBA fan world.

More Cavs stuff late tonight here on InsideHoops.com.

John Salmons rocking with Bulls

The Arlington Heights Daily Herald (Mike McGraw) reports (via blog): John Salmons continues to be almost shockingly efficient. In the last four games, he’s averaged 28.0 points and shot 63.1 percent from the field. Some people figured he averaged 18 points in Sacramento only because he got so many opportunities with a horrible team, but he’s been even better with the Bulls. His assist total is minuscule, but I don’t see that as a problem right now. Rose, Gordon and Kirk Hinrich spend so much time handling the ball that when Salmons gets it, it’s usually time to make something happen before the shot clock runs out. The best thing about Salmons is he’s had an almost even mix of outside shots and drives to the basket. He’s got a quick first step and finishes very well near the hoop. Tough to complain about his game. He outscored Bryant and Paul Pierce in games this week.

Uncertain future for Kyrylo Fesenko with Jazz

Utah Jazz big-man Kyrylo Fesenko is like a giant kid. I mean that in a good way. Each time I’ve talked with him, he just seems happy. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to stick around with the Jazz or even the NBA in the future. The Deseret News (Tim Buckley) reports:

Though he continues to toil with the Jazz’s NBA Development League affiliate Utah Flash, big man Kyrylo Fesenko isn’t out of mind with the Jazz brass. Asked if the verdict still remains out on Fesenko — the Jazz must decide shortly before the upcoming June NBA Draft whether to exercise their third-year contract option on the 2007 second-round pick — coach Jerry Sloan suggested it was. “He has the ability to play. It’s just what he does with that ability,” Sloan said late last week. “You know, you can talk and work with him, (but) he has to be the guy that comes out and does the work every day and gets in great shape so he can do those things. “But there’s no question he has skills to play.”

In 18 Jazz games this season Fesenko has averaged 2.4 points and 1.8 rebounds, playing just under 8 minutes per outing.

NBA hopes to avoid lockout

ESPN.com (Marc Stein) reports: NBA commissioner David Stern expressed cautious optimism this week that he can eventually broker a new labor agreement that pre-empts any threat of a work stoppage after the league’s current deal with its players expires in June 2011, telling ESPN.com that he and NBA Players Association chief Billy Hunter will meet as early as May or June for “substantive” talks… NBA owners have the right to extend the current collective bargaining agreement through the 2011-12 season, but are widely expected to reject that option either on or before the deadline of Dec. 15, 2010. There is growing dissatisfaction among many owners with issues such as contract lengths, average salary — roughly $5.4 million — and the 57 percent annual share of revenues guaranteed to the players during the most crippling worldwide economic slump in 80 years.