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Final Score: New Jersey 83 - Cleveland 104

Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - LeBron James put the Cavaliers on his back by posting 21 of his 33 points in the second half, as Cleveland rallied from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter for a 104-83 victory over the New Jersey Nets.

James, who sat out of practice for two days to rest his ailing back, shot 11- of-21 from the field and 10-of-13 from the foul line. He also had seven rebounds and eight assists, and the Cavs used a 22-3 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to surge in front.

"Right now we're a team where we need to catch a groove," James said. "Me sitting out is not going to help that. I felt good enough where I knew I could be effective tonight. I tried to play well and try to get us into a groove."

Wally Szczerbiak added 14 points off the bench and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 13 in a starting role for the Cavaliers, who snapped a two-game skid. Cleveland remained two games ahead of Washington for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference in the battle for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Delonte West and Daniel Gibson each scored 12 for Cleveland, which won for just the third time in its last eight contests and beat the Nets for the only time in four meetings this season.

Vince Carter scored 19 for the Nets, losers in five of their last six games. Richard Jefferson ended with 15 points, and Bostjan Nachbar had 14 in defeat, as the Nets had just nine points in the fourth quarter and were outscored, 55-30 in the second half, watching their slim playoff hopes vanish.

Additionally, New Jersey missed its final 19 shots of the last quarter after Nachbar had the only successful field goal, a three-pointer, to begin the period.

"It was tough, but I liked everybody's aggressiveness, trying to get to the basket and get ourselves to the free throw line," Carter said. "We weren't hitting shots, and we were just trying to get to the basket. It's tough when you're not hitting shots, not making layups and calls we felt we should have gotten, we weren't getting. It was just triple threat negative."

That three-pointer moved the Nets to a 77-76 lead, but the Cavs came back with the next 11 points. Sasha Pavlovic's jumper gave Cleveland the lead and Szczerbiak had the exclamation point by draining a three. Ilgauskas' putback bucket made it 87-77 with 5:39 remaining.

James went scoreless during the run, but Cleveland's defense did its job, holding the Nets without a point for nearly nine minutes until Carter's two free throws had the visitors within 87-78.

A spectacular layup from James, which turned into a three-point play, extended the margin to 91-79 with four minutes left. James darted to the basket from the left side before using his left hand to score as he was fouled by Nenad Krstic.

For a while it looked as if the Nets would run away after building a sizeable lead in the third quarter. Ahead by four at the half, New Jersey used a 12-2 burst to start the third for a 65-51 lead.

Stromile Swift's jumper had the Nets ahead 74-65 with 2:16 to go in the third, but the Cavs scored the final 11 of the period.