Duncan perfect at the buzzer

CLEVELAND (AP) — Gordon Gund's last game as owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers had a familiar ending: a buzzer-beating shot by a star player. A stunned crowd. A loss.

Tim Duncan made a wide-open 19-foot jumper just before the final horn sounded, giving the San Antonio Spurs a 94-92 victory Monday night over the Cavaliers, who hoped to send Gund off as a winner.

Instead, Gund's finale as majority owner was painfully fitting. During his 22 seasons with the Cavaliers, his teams were beaten by some big shots, most notably Michael Jordan's jumper over Craig Ehlo in the first round of the 1989 Eastern Conference playoffs for the Chicago Bulls.

Duncan's completes a vicious cycle.

”We were able to take them down to the wire,” LeBron James said. ”That was a great effort for us.”

In other games, it was: New York 117, L.A. Lakers 115 in overtime; Dallas 90, New Orleans 86; and Utah 87, L.A. Clippers 86.

Duncan's game-winning shot concluded a night that started miserably for the All-Star forward. He missed his first seven shots and didn't score in the first 19 minutes. But with the game on the line, Duncan took a pass from Tony Parker, gathered himself and calmly knocked down his winner without a hand in his face.

”We run that play a billion times,” Duncan said. ”So we're very comfortable with it. The shot felt good. Halfway there, I knew it was.”

After going 0-for-7, Duncan went 9-for-10 from the floor, finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Parker added 19 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists — none bigger than his short pass to Duncan after drawing Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas on a pick-and-roll.

”I couldn't make anything early,” said Duncan, who went 9-for-28 in a loss at Cleveland last season. ”I had some good shots and good looks, but nothing was going down for me. I was just going to stay with it.”

During his final timeout, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich set up the play with Duncan as the first option. As it turned out, there was no need to go over any others.

”Tony ran it perfectly,” Popovich said. ”He was to look first to Tim, then if he wasn't open drive to the middle and either take it to the rim and try to create or find (Brent) Barry in the corner.”

Ilgauskas had 26 points and LeBron James finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Cavaliers, who have lost four of five and are entering a tough stretch of upcoming games.

Manu Ginobili, who finished with 17 points, could have put the Spurs up by four points, but missed a pair of free throws with 19.2 seconds to go.

The Cavaliers called timeout and after an inbounds play, Spurs center Rasho Nesterovic left Ilgauskas wide open underneath. James whipped a pass to Cleveland's big man, whose dunk tied it 92-92 with 14.2 seconds remaining.

”We had two guys on LeBron because they were scared to death of him and rightfully so,” Popovich said. ”It was a mistake.”

The Spurs still had more than enough time to give their star a chance to win it.

Cleveland's defense was late rotating toward Duncan, who had time to set his feet, measure the distance and drill it. San Antonio's bench erupted onto the Gund Arena floor and swarmed Duncan.

Knicks 117, Lakers 115, OT

At New York, Tim Thomas scored a season-high 35 points, and the Knicks recovered after blowing a 10-point lead in the final 46 seconds of regulation.

The victory was the third straight for the Knicks, matching their longest winning streak of the season. New York remained in last place in the Atlantic Division, but pulled within five games of the first-place Boston Celtics.

Kobe Bryant forced overtime by making a 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left in regulation, and scored 30 points with eight assists and five rebounds.

Michael Sweetney tied his career high with 19 points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds.

Jazz 87, Clippers 86

At Salt Lake City, Mehmet Okur converted a three-point play with 21.7 seconds remaining and Utah held for the win when Los Angeles' Bobby Simmons missed a layup at the buzzer.

The Jazz won back-to-back games for the first time in a month and a half.

With the win, Utah's Jerry Sloan passed Dick Motta for seventh in NBA coaching victories with 636.

Simmons led the Clippers with 17 points, including a 3-pointer to get Los Angeles within a point in the last 10 seconds.

Mavericks 90, Hornets 86

At Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points, including a key jumper and two free throws in the final minute, and the Mavericks hung on to beat the team with the worst record in the Western Conference.

The Mavericks have won seven of eight.

Nowitzki, who's been bothered by a sore right hamstring, had 13 points in the final quarter.

Lee Nailon scored 14 points and P.J. Brown had 12 points and 14 rebounds to pace the Hornets.