Cavs in unfamiliar spot — up 2 in semifinals

CLEVELAND — LeBron James made sure nothing was stolen from home.

Cleveland's All-Star scored 25 of his 36 points in the second half and the Cavaliers, drawing from tough lessons learned in last year's playoffs, beat the New Jersey Nets 102-92 on Tuesday night to open a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

James added 12 assists and Sasha Pavlovic scored a career playoff-high 17 points for the Cavaliers, who later this week will head to New Jersey for Game 3 with a commanding lead in the best-of-seven series.

This is unfamiliar territory for Cleveland, which has never been up by two games in the semifinals. But with James around, anything could be possible for the Cavs, who have never been to the NBA finals.

"He made the plays to get us over the hump," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "He was the man. He said he wanted the ball, we gave him the ball and he made great, aggressive plays."

The Nets had hoped to slip out of town with at least one win, and although they shot well enough (53 percent) to get it, they were outrebounded 49-32 and took 20 fewer shots than the Cavs, who also kept several possessions alive by outhustling New Jersey.

Vince Carter scored 26 points to lead the Nets, but for the second straight game he struggled from the floor. Carter was just 10-for-26 and missed two key shots in the final two minutes when New Jersey was still close.

Richard Jefferson scored 22 and Jason Kidd had 17 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and eight turnovers for the Nets, who managed just three offensive rebounds.

"We were in it, but we just didn't execute at the end," Jefferson said. "We didn't hit shots."

The Cavaliers improved to 6-0 in these playoffs and have now won 10 straight overall since their last loss on April 8. In last year's semifinals, the Cavs dropped the first two games on the road at Detroit. They were humbling losses, blowouts by the Pistons that showed the Cavs the importance of home-court advantage.

This time around, on their own floor, the Cavaliers were a different team.

Although he said he was still battling a head cold, James didn't seem to be troubled by anything. With his scoring high for this postseason, he has now scored at least 20 points in all 19 career playoff games, the second-longest streak to begin a career in NBA history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it in his first 27.

"It was a tug-of-war match for the first three quarters," James said. "My teammates needed me to make plays, and I did."