Thank goodness John Lucas' postgame comments didn't indicate last night's final result. It had the mood of a funeral.

"I didn't think we played particularly well," said Lucas, coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. "I'm about winning basketball games and this isn't good enough. My team believes we've won six NBA titles and we've won only seven games this month. We've got to get better."

If the Cavs would've played any better, they might have won by 20.

But they managed to regroup from a sluggish start with an impressive second half which led to a 98-88 victory over the New York Knicks at Gund Arena.

Despite the win not being enough for Lucas, the victory snapped the Cavs' two-game losing streak and gave the team a needed boost before its game at Chicago tonight. Also, Jumaine Jones scored a career-high 28 points. Andre Miller finished with 25 points and 11 assists, and Wes Person finished with 20.

Bimbo Coles shared Lucas' sentiment following the victory.

"Coach isn't happy with the way we played, especially in the first half," Coles said.

"We need to come out focused from the start instead of coming out sluggish. We haven't played the way we're capable of over the past couple of weeks. If we would've taken care of the games we should have, we could be close to .500 and I agree with him."

In agreement or not, the Cavs (12-17) rebounded from a slow start and were sparked in the third quarter by the play of Miller and Jones. The Cavs trailed by one early in the third but a 14-4 run, capped by Jones' dunk, gave the Cavs a 62-53 lead.

"Tonight, we made plays on both ends of the floor," Person said. " Z' [Zydrunas Ilgauskas] made some big buckets, Jumaine made some open shots, and 'Dre made some big plays and that made the difference."

The Knicks (13-16) stopped the bleeding with a trey, but Person answered with a 3-pointer from the corner. The Knicks managed a rally and trailed by three heading into the fourth.

Shandon Anderson provided the Knicks with a big 3-pointer for a 74-73 deficit with 8:41 left. Jones' jumper began an 8-0 spurt Ilgauskas ended with a jumper for an 82-73 lead.

"Jumaine played big," Person said. "He took the shots that came to him, he ran the court and played pretty good defense. He stepped up big tonight."

But the Knicks wouldn't go away as they climbed back and trailed by five with 1:39 left. The Cavs, however, finally put them away when Ilgauskas canned another jumper followed by Person's open-court steal and dunk for a 93-84 lead with 1:02 left.

And yes. Lucas remained unmoved with the thrilling finish.

"I demand more from this team," Lucas said. "It isn't good enough just to get the win. I'm not coaching just to get another contract. I'm about bringing a winning basketball team to Cleveland. It's about focusing. Right now, I have to get their focus back because we could've played better."