Cavaliers Defeat The Heat

Tuesday, December 25th 2007, 7:49 pm

By: News On 6

CLEVELAND (AP) -- LeBron James scored 25 points and added 12 assists but the biggest gift he got on Christmas was some offensive and defensive help in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 96-82 win over the Miami Heat.

Drew Gooden scored 18, Daniel Gibson added 16 and Cleveland's defense arrived in time for the holiday.

James outshined fellow superstar Dwyane Wade, who scored 22 points but didn't make his first field goal of the second half until there was 4 minutes left. By then, the Cavs were already up by 12 points and they went on to win for just the fourth time in their last 14 games.

Anderson Varejao scored 15 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 13 for Cleveland in its most balanced games this season.

Besides Wade's 22, Ricky Davis had 15 and Shaquille O'Neal added 13 for the Heat.