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LeBron played through pain, a poor shooting night, and another court side heckler to will the Cavaliers to an ugly win over Portland. James took the young Blazers to school in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 of his game high 37, including the final basket of the game. His driving lay-up fell through the net with less than a second left to give the Cavs their first lead since the score was tied at 13.

That lead would hold up, and the Cavs escaped, and I believe that word is appropriate, 84-83. James tweaked his right ankle on a layup in the second. He limped back to the locker room with little time left in the half, and it looked iffy as to whether he would return to play. He did seem limited and stiff in the third quarter, settling for jump shots instead of driving to the rim as he was doing at will in the first half. His ankle seemed to loosen up for the fourth, as LeBron guarded Brandon Roy down the stretch. He gained confidence in his ankle by driving the lane again, and then his outside shot came back, as he hit three big triples to pull the Cavs back from an 11 point deficit.

Playing without Andy Varejao, the Cavaliers struggled to find any energy or spark from the bench. They also came close to losing the rebounding battle, which hasn’t happened to these Cavs since Varejao returned to the team. Zydrunas struggled to find his shot, finishing with 7 points. Larry Hughes was dreadful, hitting 2 of 11 from the field. Gibson hit a couple of three’s and finished with 8 points in 36 minutes of playing time. The Cavs went small for long stretches, using a line-up that included LeBron, Z, Devin Brown, Daniel Gibson and Damon Jones.

Bottom line on this one- the Cavs were quite fortunate. They take on the Sonics on Thursday, and they may be forced to do so without LeBron. James commented after the game that he will have to see what his ankle feels like tomorrow, admitting that it will be quite sore and probably swollen. Without LeBron, Sasha, and Varejao I wouldn’t bet the farm on the Cavaliers.

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