Anderson's buzzer-beater sinks Cavs

CLEVELAND -- A courtside heckler informed Kenny Anderson early in the game that young Brevin Knight was too quick for him. For a while, the fan appeared to be right.

Anderson gave him the old "whatever" and did what he learned on the courts of Queens, N.Y. He shut the man up by hitting the game-winning shot.

Anderson hit a 20-foot jumper that swished through as the horn sounded to give the Portland Trail Blazers an 86-84 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night.

Take that, rookie.

"I'm not afraid to take shot," said Anderson, who had 10 points and nine assists. "I'm not afraid to take the big shots. I'm a shooter."

The shot ruined Shawn Kemp's best game since joining the Cavaliers. He had season-highs with 31 points and 20 rebounds while leading Cleveland back from deficits of 18 in the first half and 14 early in the fourth.

"If it weren't for him, I think we might have blown them out," Anderson said. "He held them together."

Portland's Isaiah Rider had 24 points, including 13 of the Blazers' 17 in the third as they withstood a surge by the Cavs. Rasheed Wallace had 17 and Gary Trent 15.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland's 7-foot-3 rookie center from Lithuania, had 14 points and eight rebounds against his childhood idol, Arvydas Sabonis. Ilgauskas, who shares Sabonis' shooting touch and hometown of Kaunas, Lithuania, held his hero to six points and five rebounds.

Knight, a New Jersey native and the NBA leader in steals, got the better of the domestic matchup with Anderson -- until the final shot. Knight had six points, eight assists and a career-high seven steals.

"It was a good run, but why can't we make those type of runs at the beginning of the game?" Knight said. "We have to play with that sense of urgency from the get-go. Until we learn that, we are going to continue to lose games."

Kemp, looking quicker than he has all season, sank a 16-footer to pull the Cavs to 84-83 with 1:32 left. He then jumped around emotionally after a crucial 24-second call on the Blazers that set up the thrilling finish.

"A huge game - the biggest game that he's had for us as far as trying to pick up the team and trying to carry them on his back," Cleveland coach Mike Fratello said. "I'm sorry we couldn't get more contributions from sme of the other guys."

After Cleveland's Wesley Person missed a baseline jumper with 50 seconds left, Rider missed a driving jumper with the shot clock winding down. The Cavs had another chance with 20.6 seconds to play.

Cedric Henderson, fouled by Vincent Askew, missed the first and made the second from the foul line to tie it at 84 with 6.8 seconds remaining.

After a Cleveland foul, Wallace narrowly avoided a five-second call with a 20-second timeout. On the ensuing play, he found Anderson at the top of the key for the winning basket.

"That was the way we drew it up, looking for Kenny over the top," Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy said.

Portland led by as many as 18 in the first half, but the Cavs recovered with a 16-4 run that spanned the second and third quarters. Ilgauskas started the second half with an emphatic dunk against Sabonis.

Rider rescued the Blazers in the third, but the Cavs were within 69-60 after the period. A 3-pointer by Sabonis and jumper by Alvin Williams made it 74-60 at the start of the fourth.

Notes: One of Knight's steals came on an alley-oop pass he took away from the 6-foot-11 Wallace late in the second quarter. ... Nine Lithuanian journalists covered the game. A large contingent of Lithuanian fans rocked the upper deck, waving flags and tooting horns throughout the game. ... Cleveland's Derek Anderson got a bloody eye when unintentionally elbowed by Rider in the third. He did not receive stitches and returned.