CLEVELAND — Walking slowly across the confetti-littered court, Joakim Noah stopped at the spot just outside the arc where LeBron James had pulled up in his face and made a 3-pointer.
“That’s a long way,” Noah said, shaking his head as he looked at the distant rim. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The Bulls kept daring James to shoot jumpers.
“They were telling me I can’t make jump shots,” James said. “They asked me to shoot a jumper, so I did that. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.”
James scored 40 points — including 15 in the fourth quarter — as the Cavaliers maintained home-court advantage by beating the Bulls 112-102 on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference series.
James added eight rebounds and eight assists for the Cavs, who led 96-93 with 4:30 left before he took over. He hit his 3 with the 6-foot-11 Noah coming at him and followed with two free throws, a layup and two jumpers, scoring 11 straight points as Cleveland opened a 107-98 lead with 1:36 left.
