LOS ANGELES – Luol Deng scored a game-high 27 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers (14-24) held off the Los Angeles Lakers (14-24) down the stretch en route to a 120-118 victory.

Box score

Anderson Varejao tied a career-high with six assists in addition to his monster night in the paint (18 points, 18 rebounds) and Dion Waiters scored 17 points off the bench in the win.

While the game itself was an emotional rollercoaster of runs by both squads, much was made off the court about Cavalier head coach Mike Brown’s return to LA where he coached only five games before being axed during the 2012-13 campaign.

But for Brown, he was concerned with only one thing – coming out on top.

“For it me it was the next game,” said Brown. “I’m glad we got a win and I was more focused on that than anything else.”

While Cleveland certainly did not get out to as quick a start as they would have liked coming off of that 44 point drudging to the Kings in their last matchup, they used active hands on the defensive end of the court (3 steals) and some efficient team perimeter shooting (3 for 4 in the quarter) to jump out to a 28-23 lead after one.

Although the difference was only five after the opening 12 minutes, Cleveland was fortunate the Lakers only connected on 3 of their 11 3-point attempts they hoisted up in the quarter.

Of note, sixth man Dion Waiters was limited to only six minutes in the opening half as he picked up his third personal foul in the opening seconds of the second quarter.

As Cleveland opened up a seven point lead behind a pair of Tyler Zeller makes from the foul stripe, LA came roaring back with an 18-8 run to retake the lead 41-38 following a 3-point shot by Jodie Meeks.

The tandem of Meeks and Nick Young combined for 34 points on 11 of 17 shooting (6 for 10 3-point) in the half as the Lake Show blitzed the Cavaliers for 40 points in the second quarter on their way to a 63-57 lead at the break.

With the disappointing second half against the Kings freshly in their memory, the Cavs and Deng decided they had had enough to start the third quarter.

Deng came out of the gates shooting himself unconscious as he connected on three triples in the opening two minutes of the third quarter.

Deng’s play was infectious as the Cavaliers had much better ball movement on the offensive end of the court and were much quicker on their defensive rotations in the period as they quickly swung a six point halftime deficit into a 10 point lead midway through the quarter.

The Lakers would trim the lead down to three at the end of the third quarter, but the Cavs would play themselves back into in the game in the period where they outscored LA 31-22.

After Kyrie Irving picked up a quick fifth foul and the Lakers had retaken the lead, Dion Waiters stepped up and put the team on his back.

Waiters scored 13 of his 17 points on the night in the final period and also had a handful of assists – setting up teammates for timely buckets down the stretch.

As the game proved to be a series of runs, the Lakers would fight their way back into it yet again where they would have a chance to tie late before ultimately losing the free throw battle against the clock in the waning seconds.

While surrendering 118 points won’t get the job done on most nights, Brown knows his team got lucky on Tuesday night and that they have to be much better on the defensive end moving forward.

“Anybody could see it – we were not defending,” said Brown. “Defensively we have to go understand that [playing tough defense] is how we are going to win on the road. We have the ability to score points, we just have to understand that we need to defend first; we need to defend second, and defend third on the road. We have to be gritty on the road. If we are not gritty it is going to be hard for us to get wins thinking we can just go out and outscore anybody we have to play.”

Postgame shots

With the win the Cavs end a three game losing-streak at the Staples Center and are now 10-5 against LA dating back to the 2005-06 All-star break.

The Wine and Gold will play the Trailblazers on the second of a back-to-back tomorrow night in the Rose Garden where they will look to avenge a 119-116 loss at the hands of the Trailblazers and Damian Lillard’s 3-pointer at the buzzer. Worth noting – Portland has been off since Saturday.

At 14-24 the Cavs remain within 1.5 games of Charlotte for the eighth seed in the ‘Way too early’ Eastern Conference Playoff picture.

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