Knicks 101, Cavaliers 91: Carmelo Anthony had 31 points and 14 rebounds as visiting New York moved closer to wrapping up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.

J.R. Smith came off the bench to also score 31 points as the Knicks boosted their lead over third-place Indiana to three games with three to play. The teams will square off Sunday in New York.

Kyrie Irving scored 31 points and Tristan Thompson had 15 and 11 rebounds for Cleveland, which lost its third straight game and fell to 2-13 in its last 15.

The Knicks, who had their 13-game winning streak snapped in Chicago on Thursday, seized control in the second quarter when Smith scored six straight points to ignite a 13-0 run that built the lead to 44-30 en route to a 52-43 halftime edge.

The Cavaliers never got the lead under eight points the rest of the way and trailed 75-64 entering the fourth. Any notion of a comeback was doused when Smith scored five points in 30 seconds to boost the lead to 20 and only an 11-0 run by Cleveland to close the game made the final score respectable.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Cavaliers rookie G Dion Waiters, who returned to the lineup Wednesday after missing 10 games with a sore knee, was not at the arena due to a family matter. ... With their frontcourt depleted by injuries, the Knicks released injured F Kurt Thomas (foot) and signed 6-10 Solomon Jones, who had been playing in China and has NBA experience with four different teams. ... Anthony had his seventh straight 30-point game for New York, which was again without C Tyson Chandler (neck) and F Kenyon Martin (ankle).