CLEVELAND: The Cleveland Cavaliers won't get style points for Sunday's 87-86 win over the Philadelphia 76ers and that’s just fine with LeBron James.

Moving 2 1/2 games ahead of Chicago for second place in the Eastern Conference was all that mattered to James, who led Cleveland with 20 points.

The Cavaliers, coming off a stretch that had them play 14 of 19 games on the road, struggled to put away the team with the third-worst record in the league.
Cleveland, which is 29-7 since Jan. 13, lost to Brooklyn on Friday and scuffled at times in wins over Indiana and Milwaukee.


The Cavaliers, who lost Kevin Love (back) and Iman Shumpert (left ankle) to injuries, won't practice again until Wednesday before hosting Miami on Thursday.

Timofey Mozgov's basket gave Cleveland an 87-83 lead with 4:04 remaining, but the Cavaliers didn't score again and the 76ers cut the lead to one. Kyrie Irving missed a shot in the lane and Philadelphia called timeout with 8.5 seconds left to set up the last shot.

Irving scored 17 points while James, who was 8 of 24 from the field, had 11 rebounds and six assists. He moved within two points of passing Patrick Ewing for 20th place on the career scoring list.

Mozgov scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds while Love had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Love took an elbow to his back, which has bothered him all season, in the fourth quarter and walked directly to the locker room. Shumpert hurt his ankle while missing a breakaway dunk in the second quarter.