Ex-Sonic wins game for Cavs, who down Bulls

LeBron James had the ball. Ronald Murray had the open look.

So James passed to his teammate, and Murray responded by making a 3-pointer from the right side with 3.9 seconds remaining to lift the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 92-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.

The Cavaliers then held their breath as Andres Nocioni missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. With that, Cleveland snapped a five-game losing streak after blowing a 25-point lead.

Murray, acquired from Seattle at the trade deadline, scored 11 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.

The winning shot came after Kirk Hinrich went 1 of 2 from the free-throw line to give the Bulls a 91-89 lead with 11 seconds left. With James driving toward the basket, Nocioni helped and left open Murray – a 20-percent 3-point shooter.

“My man came off me to slide over on LeBron,” Murray said. “He left me wide open. The look I had felt good, and the shot felt good.”

James had no qualms about passing out to Murray for that shot.

“It was the right thing to do,” he said.

Coach Mike Brown agreed.

“Everyone thinks that LeBron has to take that last shot, but he’s a guy who will pass it back to the open guy,” Brown said. “He did the right thing. He drove extremely hard to the rim, and they collapsed on him.”

After a timeout, Nocioni was supposed to hand the ball to Ben Gordon, but Eric Snow prevented that. Nocioni had to force a 3 at the buzzer.

Spurs 98, Mavericks 89: At San Antonio, Michael Finley scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter against his former team, and San Antonio beat Dallas in a matchup of the top teams in the Western Conference.

With the victory, the Spurs leapfrogged over the Mavs to the top spot in the West.

The teams have identical 45-12 records, but San Antonio holds a 2-1 advantage in head-to-head play.

The win was also the 500th for Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who took over the team during the 1996-97 season.