Cavaliers 124, Nuggets 91
CLEVELAND -- LeBron James had 33 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, and the Cleveland Cavaliers clinched the Central Division title with a 124-91 victory Monday night against the Denver Nuggets.
Cleveland (50-20) sealed the fifth division title in team history and also secured its ninth 50-win season.
James registered his second triple-double of the season and the 41st of his career.
Cavs forward Channing Frye scored 14 points as a replacement for Kevin Love, who did not play because he was ill. J.R. Smith scored 15 points, and Matthew Dellavedova had 10 points and seven assists off the bench. Kyrie Irving finished with eight points and three assists.
"I think a 50-win season in this league, it's not every year you can do that," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. "It just shows the hard work the guys have put in to get to this point."
The Cavs built a 19-point lead in the first quarter before the bench gave it all back in the second. The Nuggets scored 17 consecutive points in the second while the Cavs went scoreless for more than six minutes. Will Barton scored 16 of his team-high 27 points in the second quarter for Denver.
The Cavs led by as many as 31 in the fourth quarter after trailing by as many as 33 on Saturday in an embarrassing loss at Miami. That is the way it has been all season for the Cavs, who despite their struggles still hold the top spot in the Eastern Conference with three weeks left in the regular season.
"All is not bad," Lue said. "We're still growing, we're still getting better on a night-to-night basis and we can celebrate this, but we gotta keep moving forward."
Nikola Jokic, Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic each scored 11 points for the Nuggets, whose starters totaled 33 points -- the same figure James totaled by himself.
NOTES: Denver F Kenneth Faried missed his third game with a sore back. ... Nuggets coach Mike Malone spent five years as an assistant coach with the Cavaliers during LeBron James' first stop in Cleveland. Malone said his fondest memories were the team's improbable run to the 2007 NBA Finals, including James' epic performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals when he scored 28 of the Cavs' final 30 points at Detroit. ... Cleveland F Kevin Love (illness) missed his fourth game of the season. The Cavs are 4-0 without him. ... The Cleveland defense has slipped significantly since Tyronn Lue took over as head coach, but Lue said Monday the Cavs are going to simplify things. "Our defense is going to get better," Lue said. "And I take full blame for that. We're trying to do some different things and now we just got to get back to the basics and get back to our foundation."