Luol leads Bulls past Cavs 84-78

(AP)
Updated: 2007-02-23 14:30

CLEVELAND -- Luol Deng scored 18 points and Ben Wallace had 19 rebounds, a season-high seven blocks and two huge free throws in the final minutes to lead the Chicago Bulls to an 84-78 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night.

Wallace added 14 points as the Bulls snapped a six-game losing streak in Cleveland and improved to 8-2 in the Central Division.

Ben Gordon scored 16 points and Kirk Hinrich 11 for the Bulls, who overcame foul trouble and put away the Cavaliers with a 14-5 burst in the fourth quarter.

LeBron James scored 29 points and Larry Hughes had 20 for Cleveland, but the Cavaliers, the NBA's worst free-throw shooting team, were just 8-of-16 from the line. Chicago, meanwhile, was 12-of-12 from the stripe. Wizards 109, Kings 106=

At Washington, Gilbert Arenas scored 30 of his 43 points in the first half, and Washington blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead and survived a video review at the buzzer to beat Sacramento.

With 0.7 seconds remaining, John Salmons took a long inbounds pass and made a turnaround jump shot at the 3-point arc. Officials initially ruled it a good 2-point basket, but replay showed it to be a 3 that was released just after the clock hit 0.0.

Caron Butler scored 19 of his 25 points after halftime. DeShawn Stevenson finished with 21 points for the Wizards, who won their third straight and improved to 4-4 since Antawn Jamison was sidelined with a knee injury.

The tag team of Arenas and Butler outscored Ron Artest and Bibby in high-spirited game that combined streaky shooting with 47 combined turnovers. Artest had 21 of his 32 points by halftime, while 22 of Bibby's 30 came after the break. Mavericks 112, Heat 100=

At Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki had 31 points and 11 rebounds and Dallas took advantage of Dwyane Wade's absence to beat Miami for their 10th straight victory.

Miami was playing in Dallas for the first time since winning the NBA title in Game 6 of the championship series last June. Wade, who averaged nearly 35 points in that series and was the finals MVP, is considering season-ending surgery after dislocating his left shoulder Wednesday night in a loss in Houston.

Dallas has won 31 of 33 and became just the fourth team in NBA history to have three winning streaks of at least 10 games.

Shaquille O'Neal had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Heat.



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