NBA Playoffs | LeBron puts Cavs up 2-0

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 in the best-of-seven series.

"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 shot 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 and eight assists for the Nets, who managed 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 won 10 straight overall since their last regular-season 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. Scoring his high for this postseason, James has scored at least 20 points in all 19 of his career playoff games, the second-longest streak to begin a career in NBA history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it in his first 27 postseason games.

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

And when James needed help scoring, rebounding and playing defense, his teammates were there for him.

James' basket with 5:41 left put the Cavs ahead 89-85, and on Cleveland's next trip, he whipped a pass to a cutting Drew Gooden, whose two-handed slam put the Cavaliers up by six. Gooden finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds.

Carter, begging for the ball every time the Nets had it, was able to get the Nets to 93-89 on a bucket with 2:40 left. The Nets had a chance to cut it further, but Carter missed a tough fadeaway on the baseline and fell to the floor with a bad cramp.

Carter missed again with 1:43 left, and James made the Nets pay with a 15-footer to make it 96-89 with 1:19 left.

With 54 seconds left, Pavlovic missed a long jumper but was able to run down his rebound, yet another missed chance for the Nets.

"That's what they do," Jefferson said. "They are No. 1 in the league in second-chance points, and we have to stop it. It's not like they're going to go from first to 29th. We have to adjust."

Earlier in the period, Kidd's fourth three-pointer put the Nets ahead 81-78, but as was the case all night, James had an answer. He dropped a three of his own and then fed Hughes for a three-pointer from the top of the key to make it 84-81 with 7:43 remaining, putting the Cavs in position to close it out.