NBA Playoffs Results

vs(From the Associated Press) - Joakim Noah had to go back for one more look.

Walking slowly across the confetti-littered court, Noah stopped at the spot just outside the arc where LeBron James had pulled up in his face and made a 3-pointer.

“That’s a long way,” Noah said, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked at the distant rim. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The Chicago Bulls kept daring James to shoot jumpers.

He obliged.

“They were telling me I can’t make jump shots,” James said. “They asked me to shoot a jumper so I did that. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.”

James scored 40 points—15 in a tour-de-force fourth quarter—as the Cavaliers, fueled by a rabid home crowd that booed every move by Noah, maintained home-court advantage by beating the Bulls 112-102 on 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 MVP took over. He hit his 3 with the 6-foot-11 Noah coming at him and followed with a quick dance move and wink directed at Chicago’s talkative bench.

James then made two free throws, a layup and two jumpers, scoring 11 straight points as Cleveland opened a 107-98 lead with 1:36 left.

When James came off the bench in the fourth, teammate J.J. Hickson touched his fingers to his forearm the same way a baseball manager would to summon a closer from the bullpen.

In came basketball’s version of Mariano Rivera.

“They call me the closer every time I come in in the fourth quarter,” James said. “It’s my time to put the game away or do what I do best and that’s try to close the game the right way.”

Noah, who drew the ire of Cleveland fans by criticizing the city’s lack of downtown activity, had 25 points and 13 rebounds.

Afterward, the most brazen of the Bulls, said he had no regrets about his comments.

“Not at all,” Noah said. “You like it? You think Cleveland’s cool? I never heard anybody say I’m going to Cleveland on vacation. What’s so good about Cleveland?”

Derrick Rose added 23 points and Luol Deng had 20 for the Bulls, who will head home for Game 3 on Thursday night.

Noah didn’t make much of the incessant booing. He’s heard it before.

“My whole life I’ve been booed,” Noah said. “College I was booed a lot. Boston they don’t like me over there. They don’t like me here, either. It’s OK. I have my friends.”

Antawn Jamison scored 14 points and Jamario Moon made four 3-pointers for Cleveland, which looked much more out of sync than in Game 1. Shaquille O’Neal, a force at both ends in the opener, scored eight points and played only 15 minutes—zero in the fourth quarter.

James spent the first 3:26 of the fourth on the bench getting rest. When he returned to the court, the Cavs were clinging to an 85-82 lead over the Bulls, who were giving top-seeded Cleveland all it could handle and were intent on evening the best-of-seven series.

With the Cavs up three, James pulled up on Noah, who had criticized Cleveland’s superstar for dancing on the court in a game earlier this season. James, though, gave a little shoulder shake after his basket and then ended his personal scoring outburst with a jumper over Kirk Hinrich just before the 24-second clock expired.

“LeBron’s hitting unbelievable shots,” Noah said. “Yes, it’s tough. But we’ve got to play them again, so I don’t want to be up here and give LeBron all this credit. Yeah, he played an unbelievable game. It’s tough right now. I hate to lose, so I’m a little frustrated by that. But we’ll be ready to go come Thursday.”

The Bulls, who pushed Boston to seven games in the opening round last season, did a much better job rebounding and were more physical than in Game 1.

But Chicago had no answer for James. No one does.

He delivered one of those did-he-really-do-that dunks in the first quarter, a soaring slam over Chicago’s James Johnson that could be one of the best—and most ferocious—of his career.

Staring from the left side, James drove to his right past Johnson down the foul line, reached back like a baseball pitcher looking for more velocity on his fastball and powered his jam over a stunned Johnson as Cleveland’s sellout crowd gasped and then erupted.

“It definitely ranks up there,” James said. “It’s one of the best ones.”

The dunk shook the backboard, not the Bulls.

They trailed by 10 points early in the second quarter, but worked their way back with extra effort, especially on the offensive glass.

Noah grabbed four of Chicago’s eight offensive rebounds in the first half, resulting in 13 second-chance points. Anthony Parker’s 3-pointer put the Cavs up 50-44, but with O’Neal on the bench after picking up his third personal, Noah scored six straight points as the Bulls pulled within 52-50 at halftime.

vs(From the Associated Press) - With Utah running out of big bodies, Deron Williams carried an even bigger load.

Williams had 33 points and 14 assists while chalking up nearly 45 minutes to lead the Jazz to a 114-111 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night in Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round series.

“He took over from the beginning of the game, which is huge for us,” said Carlos Boozer, who added 20 points and 15 rebounds as the injury-riddled Jazz tied the series before it shifts to Salt Lake City for Game 3 on Friday night.

“D-Will and Booze, they had their way,” said Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups, whose 3-point attempt from the top of the key in the closing seconds hit off the back iron.

Williams and Kyle Korver made two free throws each in the final 11 seconds to hold off the Nuggets, who had overcome a 14-point third-quarter deficit to take a 102-98 lead with 4 1/2 minutes left.

Utah was playing without two of its most experienced playoff performers in forward Andrei Kirilenko (calf), who is out for this series, and center Mehmet Okur, who tore his left Achilles’ tendon in Game 1 and is done for the playoffs.

“We can’t just give up on the season just because we don’t have those guys out here,” Williams said.

Kyryo Fesenko played admirably on Nene, and Carmelo Anthony was flustered despite scoring 32 points just 48 hours after his playoff-best 42-point performance in the opener.

Anthony made 14 of 15 free throws but was just 9 of 25 from the field and was whistled for four offensive fouls. He fouled out of a playoff game for the first time in his career.

Denver is 1-11 all-time when Anthony fouls out and he was whistled for his sixth foul with 25 seconds left and the Nuggets down by a point.

“Him not being in there the last 25 seconds was huge for us,” Boozer said.

The officials blew the call, however. C.J. Miles stepped out of bounds before Anthony fouled him, but the crew didn’t see it and Miles made both free throws for a 110-107 lead.

“I knew I was close but it was only because he was hitting me,” Miles insisted. “He was trying to get the ball.”

Each of Denver’s other four starters finished with five fouls, and the Nuggets had 37 altogether.

“That’s just part of the game,” Nuggets acting coach Adrian Dantley said. “They went to the rim. Williams got 18 free throws, that’s part of the game. You have to adjust to the referees if they’re going to make close calls.”

“We had some bad calls down the stretch but you have to figure out a way to fight through that, play through that,” Nuggets center Johan Petro said. “We missed some easy shots, some lay-ups and we kind of felt it at the end. But we know what we have to do. We’ll get one over there. It’s playoff basketball.”

Anthony didn’t have the open looks he did in Game 1, when he shot over his defenders. This time, Wesley Matthews and Miles were up in his face every time he took a step toward the basket.

“I think we tried to get to him a little bit earlier,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. “In the game before we let everybody go where they wanted to go. Sometimes you get tired of taking a butt kicking. You have to step up and fight back a little.”

Trailing by 12 points at halftime, the Nuggets floundered through the first 7 minutes of the second half, falling behind 76-62 on Boozer’s putback dunk before using a 14-0 run to tie it.

Williams ended a 5-minute scoring drought for Utah with two free throws, and the Jazz recovered to take an 88-82 lead into the fourth quarter thanks to Korver’s three jumpers in the final 90 seconds.

The Jazz shot 68 percent in the first half and took a 63-51 lead after closing the half on a 17-3 run that had Denver’s fans booing them through the tunnel almost as much as they jeered the officiating crew moments later.

Boozer had four baskets in the run, and Matthews swished a wide-open 3-pointer from the left corner as the crowd sat in stunned silence as the Jazz manhandled the Nuggets on both ends.

Fesenko, who packs 300 pounds on his 7-foot-1 frame, clogged the middle for the Jazz and kept Utah from having to use Boozer and Paul Millsap the whole game.

After Anthony’s big performance in the opener, the Jazz talked about being more physical with him in Game 2, although Dantley was skeptical they could do that effectively with young players Matthews and Miles: “They’re not Kirilenko. They’re not Matt Harpring,” Dantley noted before tip-off.

On this night, they were equally effective.