CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls went back and forth all night, with 24 lead changes through the first three quarters.

But the Cavs saved their best for last -- as usual.

"For us all year, that's kind of where we've won a lot of games, in that quarter," Dwyane Wade said. "We lock in a little bit more on defense. You kind of know by then what a team wants to run. You kind of know what to take away from individual players, etc. And we put our lineups out there that makes us tough, able to switch a lot of things and things of that nature. We're very confident in the fourth."

That confidence seeps throughout the locker room. It's a core group that has gone to three straight NBA Finals and won a championship together, rallying in historic fashion to dethrone the mighty Golden State Warriors.

As LeBron James said early Thursday morning, the Cavs have a roster dotted with winners and numerous players that have been in big moments. Wade even joked in the locker room, while searching for the deodorant he believes someone snagged from him, there are a number of veterans on the team, which keeps him from being the oldest player and helps the Cavs when the game tightens.

Against the Bulls, the formula was similar. Dwyane Wade started the fourth period, flanked by his other bench mates -- Cedi Osman, Tristan Thompson, Kyle Korver and Jeff Green -- as James got his early-quarter rest.

An aggressive Wade, who has been at the center of the team's success late in games, sensed it was his turn to lead.

He opened the period with a jumper. Then followed with a blocked shot, driving floater and steal. Suddenly, a 7-0 run had the Cavs with their biggest lead of the night, a stretch Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg said lost the game for Chicago.

"I think this year, even more than year's past, our bench has been really good for us," Kevin Love told cleveland.com. "We've been getting a lot. With those different lineups even to start the fourth we feel like no matter the lineup we feel like we have an advantage."

The Cavs have found a working group to start the fourth quarter. They've built chemistry on and off the floor and fit really well together. They believe in head coach Tyronn Lue's lineup combinations,

The other key component to the Cavs' fourth-quarter success? James, of course, who checked back in around the nine-minute mark to make that quintet even more formidable.

The league's best player in crunch time this season, James is averaging 9.1 points on 55.2 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from 3-point range.

In the 115-112 win against the streaking Bulls, one where the Cavs scored 33 points on 57.1 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc, James tallied 11 of his team-high 34 points in the fourth period. He scored or assisted on 17 of the team's final 19 points, eventually clinching the game with a pair of free throws.

"This being my fourth year with him, I think his mentality in the fourth this year has changed," Love admitted. "It could be a product of Kyrie (Irving) being gone or could be that he has to be the playmaker for us. I think a lot of it, even more of it, is falling in his hands to make plays for us, especially down the stretch.

"But it is quite a luxury when Bron's been so great in the fourth. I think that picks up our level of play and I think guys aren't really stressing the moment. They're in the moment loving the way we've been playing."

Korver scored nine points in the fourth Thursday night. He hit two more bombs, upping his NBA-high total to 39, which is 11 more than Golden State's Klay Thompson in the fourth. Korver's hitting 47.6 percent from deep and has scored 154 of his 348 total points, almost as many as he's tallied in the first three quarters combined.

"Well, I mean, listen, his name is Fourth Korver for a reason," James said. "We wanted to continue to give it to him and I had a couple passes that I wish I could have had back with him and we kind of lost it a couple times. But any time he gets a little separation we want to continue to go back to him and that fourth quarter play was huge."

In all, the Cavs rank third in the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring, averaging 26.7 points. They rank fifth in field goal percentage, shooting 47.5 percent overall and 36.9 percent from beyond the arc.

It's winning time, moments when the Cavs have been at their best all season. They never panic -- even when they get behind by a big margin.

They're comfortable when the game slows down and execution becomes vital. The Cavs know where they want to go on offense, asking James and Wade to initiate most of the time while other players move without the ball, looking for openings in case teams start tilting the floor.

Yes, despite losing Irving, one of the best players in the clutch, the Cavs are outscoring opponents by 56 points and have won 20 of 34 fourth quarters.

"We know how to win games," Wade said. "In the fourth quarter, I've been on teams where we've played darn good and in the last five minutes we just didn't know how to win 'em. There's a lot of teams out there like that. To be on a team which I have before within the last five minutes where you feel confident almost every time that you're going to win the game. Every now and again you may lose, but for the most part we're going to come out with those victories."

The Cavs have also leaned on their defense plenty late in games. The other night they held the Bucks to 21 points in the quarter, helping ignite the rally.

On the season, Cleveland ranks 10th in defensive rating (104.0) in the quarter, holding opponents to 25.0 points on 43.1 percent from the field, by far their best mark of any quarter.

The attention to detail picks up, the team locks in. And Wade, a 15-year veteran, sees a mentality change.

"I do. There's a sense of urgency to win," he said. "I would rather be our best in the fourth quarter. I don't want to be a good first-quarter team and an awful fourth-quarter team, that's not a recipe for winning. I'd rather reverse that, be a terrible first-quarter team and be an awesome fourth-quarter team if that's the way it had to be."