LeBron James, in a rare instance in which he was not his team's leading scorer, added 22 points for the Cavaliers to go with 11 assists and eight rebounds. Daniel Gibson contributed 15 and Ben Wallace had 11.

Chauncey Billups, suffering his first loss since being traded to Denver from Detroit, paced the Nuggets with a season-high 26 points. Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith had 18 points each.

Denver had won its previous three games.

The game was tied with 4:30 remaining in the third quarter, but the Cavaliers went on a 10-3 run to end the period. Williams scored five straight points to give Cleveland a 103-91 lead with 5:55 to go and the Nuggets could not recover.