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James, Cavaliers take care of Heat

Feb 12, 2015 - 5:38 AM Cleveland, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - LeBron James chased a triple-double against his old team, leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 113-93 win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.

James finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists and the Cavaliers cruised to their 14th win in 15 games despite playing without Kevin Love for most of the second half.

Love left after being poked in the right eye by Heat guard Mario Chalmers early in the third quarter, but said after the game that he felt "OK."

"It will be reevaluated tomorrow," Love said. "I got hit there pretty hard by Chalmers. It was blurry for around 20-30 minutes but I was able to regain my vision and feel fine now. I'm just happy we were able to sustain the lead and get the win."

Timofey Mozgov picked up some of the slack, scoring 14 of his season-high 20 points in the second half. Tristan Thompson added 17 points and nine rebounds, Kyrie Irving had 15 points and six assists and Iman Shumpert scored 13.

Chalmers scored 18 to lead the Heat, who head into the All-Star break with a 22-30 record. They are 2-5 since Dwyane Wade went down with a strained hamstring.

"Every time we brought it back, there was a costly turnover or we couldn't put together enough stops at that point," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. "You do have to credit them. They played with great force offensively on the pick-and- rolls. They were able to create a lot of opportunities."

The Cavaliers, 2-1 since their 12-game winning streak was snapped at Indiana on Friday, have won 10 in a row at home.

They shot almost 70 percent from the field in the first quarter and led by as many as 20 points at the end of a 13-2 run that included 3s from Love and Irving.

The Cavs were 10-for-25 on 3s in the game.

"We're just playing with a sense of urgency and we're defending," said James. "When you defend you give yourself a great chance to win every night, no matter if you shoot the ball well or you don't. When you defend like we've been doing, we are going to give ourselves a great chance."

They made six in the first quarter, but the longest shot came from Miami's Tyler Johnson, who buried a halfcourt heave at the buzzer to get the Heat within 38-23.

Thompson scored 12 points in the first half and Cleveland carried a 59-48 advantage into the break. James added 12 points in the half and Love scored 11.

The Cavs led by as many as 21 points midway through the third quarter and Miami was never closer than 12 after that.

Game Notes

The Heat defeated Cleveland 101-91 on Christmas in James' first game back in Miami since returning to the Cavaliers in the offseason ... The teams will meet two more times this season. Their next game is March 16 in Miami ... Cleveland starts a four-game road trip on Thursday against Chicago, its last game before the All-Star break ... Miami's next game is Feb. 20 on the road against New York.