Kyrie Irving's career-best 41 points could not lead Cleveland Cavaliers to victory and they lost to the New York Knicks 102-103 on Saturday night.
For the Knicks, the top scorer Raymond Felton finished with 25 points and seven assists, while Tyson Chandler scored 23 points and 10 rebounds to overpower Cavaliers point guard Irving's sparkling performance. J.R Smith had 16 points, whereas Steve Novak added 13 for New York.
''Guys stepped up. Raymond played great, Tyson played great, and it was just enough,'' Knicks forward Novak said.
The Knicks registered their fourth victory in a row. Their star scorer Carmelo Anthony, who could not play in Saturday's game because of a sprained left ankle, may play against Houston Monday.
For the Cavaliers, Irving shot 15 of out 25 attempts from the field and hit five 3-pointers. He also added five assists and five rebounds.
''When a guy gets that hot, there's nothing you can really do, other than just stay in front of him and make him take tough shots, which he did. He just hit great shots and we still got the win, though,'' The Associated Press quoted Felton as saying. ''Any time a guy comes in your building and scores 41 points and he still got a loss, then you did your job.''
The Cavaliers scored 28 in the first half, whereas New York could add only 27. But the Knicks outscored Cleveland 21-17 in the second quarter.
The Knicks entered the second half with a five-point lead. They outscored the Cavaliers 30-28 to extend their lead.
Irving, who added 17 points in the fourth quarter, shot two free throws to reduce the Knicks' lead 101-102.
''There's always temptation there, but I have the utmost trust in my teammates and you know Andy made a great play, got to the free throw line and gave ourselves a chance to win,'' Irving replied, when asked if he wanted to keep the ball with himself.
For the Cavaliers, the top scorer CJ Miles added 17 points and chipped in eight rebounds, while forward-center Tristan Thompson scored 10 points and shot five out of five attempts from the floor.
''We played good. We played hard. Answered a lot questions that I had for the guys after the game,'' Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. ''It's just a matter of us doing it on a nightly basis. That's the biggest thing. We can't do it just against the Lakers or the Knicks. You got to do it against everybody and I know we're capable of playing that hard every single night.''
Cleveland center Anderson Varejao missed a free throw with 1 second remaining in the game and the Knicks won the game by one point.
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