Cavaliers sweep through Atlanta

While failing to match his offensive production in Game 3, LeBron James scored 27 points and got his teammates involved as the Cleveland Cavaliers finished off the Atlanta Hawks, 84-74, Monday night in Atlanta to sweep the second-round series.

Delonte West and Mo Williams showed Cleveland isn’t a one-man squad, making big shots down the stretch as the Cavaliers extended their NBA-record streak of double-digit playoff wins to eight. Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao pounded the boards, leading the Cavaliers to another big rebounding edge.

“I’ve got trust in every last one of our guys,” James said.

Said Atlanta Coach Mike Woodson: “They’ve got weapons around LeBron.”

Cleveland, which also swept Detroit in the opening round, will face either Boston or Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals.

No matter the opponent, the Cavaliers will be rested. The Celtics-Magic series is tied 2-2 and will last at least until Thursday, while the Cavaliers head back to Ohio to relax for a few days before opening the next round at home.

James, the league MVP, wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. For the Cavaliers, the only thing that will make this season complete is hoisting a trophy after the final game.

“Why should we celebrate?” James said. “We’re playing for a championship. An advance is an advance. It doesn’t matter if you win in four games or you win Game 7. We’re happy that we’re playing great basketball . . . but we’re not taking for granted what we’re doing right now.”

The Cavaliers became the second team to sweep the first two rounds of the playoffs since the first round became best-of-seven in 2003. The Miami Heat started with sweeps of New Jersey and Washington in the 2005 playoffs before losing to Detroit in the Eastern finals.

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Dallas 119, Denver 117 -- Dirk Nowitzki scored 19 of his 44 points in the fourth quarter at Dallas, including a high-arcing shot with 1:05 left that put the Mavericks ahead for good, cutting the Nuggets’ lead in the series to 3-1.

“We’re not done yet,” Nowitzki said.

Carmelo Anthony scored a career playoff-best 41 points and made a three-pointer with 3.1 seconds left from nearly the exact spot as his winning basket in the previous game, only this time it left Denver a point shy of a tie.

Denver led by 14 and was scoring at will when Anthony tangled arms with Dallas’ Antoine Wright early in the second quarter. It was like an alarm clock for the drowsy crowd of 20,523 -- and for the Mavericks, who all season have been at their best immediately after hitting rock bottom.

After the tussle between Anthony and Wright -- the main combatants of the Game 3 finish, which the league admitted was botched by officials -- Dallas kept getting close, and even tied it three times, but never went in front until Nowitzki’s rainbow over Martin that hit nothing but net.

“We’ve still got our hands full,” Nowitzki said. “We’ll let it all rip again and see what happens.”