Kyrie Irving scored 26 points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers past the Washington Wizards 87-84.
A second consecutive win improved Cleveland's record to 7-23, while Washington (3-23) lost their eighth straight game.
"I should be a lot happier than I am, I guess," the Associated Press quoted Cleveland coach Byron Scott as saying.
"But some of the boneheaded mistakes that we made, some of the fouls, some of the things we did on the defensive end to allow them to have some of the shots that they had especially toward the end -- we've just got to be a little bit smarter when the game's on the line like that."
Twenty of Irving's 26 came in the first half, which helped Cleveland keep a two-point lead at halftime. Irving's hot hand cooled quite a bit in the second half, however, missing nine of his ten shots, and managing to add only another six points.
In total Irving made eight of 23 attempts, while missing four of six free throws in the last quarter.
"Oh, man, I started thinking too much," Irving said. "After I missed my first two, I moved back on the free throw line a little bit, tried some different things. It just wouldn't fall. It was frustrating. I'm glad it's behind me and we got this win."
Tristan Thompson, who added 15 points and 12 rebounds against the Wizards, made a three-pointer with 24.4 seconds left, to help his team take a crucial lead. After that Irving's free throw with 9.5 seconds remaining consolidated the Cavaliers' position.
"We were able to sneak one out tonight," Thompson said.
Jordan Crawford and Emeka Okafor scored 17 points apiece for the Wizards, while Nene Hilario had 16.
Washington outscored the Cavaliers in the third quarter 25-23 to enter the final quarter with scores tied at 68.
The Wizards were leading by six points with 6:20 left in the game, but the Cavaliers shifted the game in their favor with a 9-0 run. Cleveland were leading 82-79 with 3:37 remaining.
In the last five minutes of the game, the Wizards had four turnovers, which eventually proved to be costly.
"We turned the ball over at crucial times. We won't commit -- all of us -- won't commit to playing defense. We make too many critical mistakes because we're just not alert down the stretch," coach Randy Wittman said.
"We've got too many guys that worry just about shooting the basketball and not about the other parts of the game."
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