Cavaliers at Nets 104 99 Box Score NBA Recap Damon Jones' three-ball cuts New Jersey's lead to a single point. Listen Game Photos Photo Archive Outside the Box View Diagram

LeBron James drives for two of his 42 points on Wednesday. Jesse D. Garrabrant NBAE/Getty Images

As always, it wasn’t for lack of effort, as the young King netted a game-high 42 points – passing Cavalier legend Austin Carr for second on the all-time franchise scoring list. But LeBron’s effort wasn’t enough as the Wine and Gold fell to 0-3 against New Jersey with the 104-99 loss at the IZOD Center.

Like the Nuggets in the Western Conference, the Nets just seem to have the Cavaliers number – at least during the regular season.

In the LeBron James Era, Cleveland is 1-7 in New Jersey. And that trend didn’t take long to unfold on Wednesday night as the Nets hit 14 of their first 16 shots, turning in a 38-point first-quarter and jumping out to a 17-point lead before the short-handed Cavaliers could get out of the starting blocks.

Every Nets starter registered double-figures and Bostjan Nachbar came off Lawrence Frank’s bench to tally 21 points. New Jersey never trailed and led at one point by as many as 19 points.

But the Cavaliers would not relent, cutting the Nets’ lead to two points halfway through the fourth quarter and slicing their edge to a single point with 16 seconds remaining.

At that point, LeBron’s two free throws made the score 99-98. On the next possession, the Cavaliers intentionally fouled Nets guard Marcus Williams, who hit his first free throw but missed his second. But Vince Carter worked his way around LeBron and snagged the rebound.

Anderson Varejao fouled Carter, who canned both free throws to put the game just out of reach of the Cavaliers comeback.

Carters’ points were his only two of the second half as the Cavaliers turned up the defensive intensity after the embarrassing first period.

Despite the losing effort, LeBron was once again nothing short of spectacular. He was 12-for-23 from the floor and made 23 more trips to the free throw line, canning 16 tosses. James grabbed 11 rebounds and was three dimes short of a triple-double, adding seven helpers. No. 23 added a pair of massive first-half blocked shots and a steal.

James continues his blistering run – scoring at least 37 points in five of the first six games this month.

Unfortunately for the young King, he didn’t get a ton of help from the other four members of the Cavaliers’ starting lineup, which scored just 19 points on the night.

Devin Brown, who has done well against he Nets this year, had 19 points of his own – going 6-for-11 from the field, adding seven boards, four assists and a pair of steals to his box. Brown was a perfect 4-for-4 from beyond the arc on Wednesday.

Damon Jones caught fire in the second half in New Jersey, drilling four treys himself as part of his 12-point performance.

Anderson Varejao had another solid outing starting at center – netting nine points and nine boards before fouling out in the closing seconds.

Richard Jefferson paced New Jersey with 24 points, going 8-for-11 from the floor and 7-of-8 from the stripe. Devin Harris, the man who took over for Jason Kidd, chipped in with 19 points and five assists and Vince Carter added 14 points and a team-high eight boards.

The Cavaliers complete yet another mid-week back-to-back on Thursday night when they travel to Washington to face the revenge-minded Wizards, who dropped a tough decision to an eight-man Cavalier squad back on February 22.

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