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McGrady leads Rockets past Cavaliers 99-80
Tracy McGrady scored 31 points and Bob Sura had 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists on his 32nd birthday, leading the Houston Rockets over the Cleveland Cavaliers 99-80 Thursday night.
Mike James had 15 points off the bench and Yao Ming added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Rockets, who were particularly crisp following an impressive win over league-leading Miami on Tuesday.
Houston shot 48 percent, outrebounded Cleveland by 11 and never trailed after the early minutes of the second quarter.
The Cavaliers turned in another woeful performance on the road after winning in Brendan Malone's coaching debut against Detroit on Tuesday. Cleveland has lost 10 straight away from home, with its last win coming Jan. 22 at Golden State.
Drew Gooden led the Cavs with 20 points and six rebounds, while LeBron James had 19 points and eight assists.
McGrady, shooting just 30 percent in the previous five games, clearly outplayed James, although the hyped one-on-one battle between the two never really materialized as the two All-Star small forwards were rarely matched up against each other.
A prep-to-pro prodigy himself back in 1997, McGrady would probably never admit to feeling slighted by all the praise heaped upon James. But he sure played like it Thursday.
After sharing a warm embrace with James moments before tipoff, McGrady attacked the basket with a ferocity not always seen from the sleepy-eyed All-Star. He drove into the lane almost every time he touched the ball instead of settling for fallaway jumpers, coming up with a handful of highlight-worthy baskets.
McGrady made a 360-degree spin under the basket for one layup in the first quarter, and threw down a thunderous left-handed dunk over Lucious Harris in the second.
Meanwhile, James never really got comfortable — typical of his games against Houston.
He shot just 7-of-22 from the field, bringing his four-game total against the Rockets to 19-of-64 (30 percent). James was held to a career-low three points in their last game Dec. 29 in Cleveland. He left that game early after suffering a bone bruise when an elbow from Dikembe Mutombo caught him over his left eye.
The Rockets really broke the game open early in the fourth quarter, going on a 12-0 run that included seven straight points from James. Houston led 85-65 at that point, and its lead would never dip below 16 points the rest of the way.
With the Rockets just a point away from 100 in the waning seconds, the crowd urged them to go for another basket. Instead, James dribbled out the clock at midcourt, laughing as he exchanged hugs with his teammates.
Notes:@ As part of another throwback night, the Rockets wore their uniforms from the 1970s. The Cavs wore their usual white home uniforms. ... Xzibit, rap star and host of MTV's "Pimp My Ride", San Diego Chargers receiver Keenan McCardell and Mathew Knowles, father of Beyonce, were all part of the sellout crowd.
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