WASHINGTON — Ed Tapscott's previous game as a head coach came in 1993 with his daughter's youth league team.

"We won, but she complained about playing time," he said.

Last night, Tapscott won again, this time in his NBA debut with the Washington Wizards, who routed the Golden State Warriors and newcomer Jamal Crawford, 124-100, to end a five-game losing streak.

And, instead of a complaint from a player, he got a presidential-level compliment.

"Now that we got 'Obama' on the sideline with us, we're going to ride with it," forward Caron Butler said. "Tap, he's light-skinned, he stands for change, he's got a law degree, he uses big words, and he's new in the district, and he's in control now, so shout out to Obama. We won tonight; he brought a lot of hope.

"And he's good with numbers, so hopefully he'll change the economy as well."

The humor was a welcome relief in a locker room full of players ticked off that their 1-10 performance to start the season had cost a popular coach his job. Eddie Jordan was fired Monday and replaced by director of player development Tapscott, and the team responded with a level of enthusiasm and hustle not seen earlier in the season.

"We just fed off the energy," forward Antawn Jamison said. "We knew we had to get this win. It's been a crazy 24 hours, and we just wanted to stop the bleeding."

CAVALIERS 119, KNICKS 101: LeBron James scored 26 points before sitting out the fourth quarter and visiting Cleveland raced to a 67-38 halftime lead and never looked back to beat New York and improve the NBA's third-best record to 11-3.

Suns 99, Thunder 98: Amare Stoudemire scored 22 points and Matt Barnes hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with 25.7 seconds left to complete visiting Phoenix's fourth-quarter rally and spoil Scott Brooks' home debut as Oklahoma City head coach.

Mavericks 109, Pacers 106: Jason Terry scored 29 points and combined with Jason Kidd to score all of their team's points in an 18-8 fourth-quarter run (Terry with 13 and Kidd with 5) as host Dallas rallied past Indiana for its fifth straight victory.

Lakers 120, Nets 93: Pau Gasol had 26 points and eight rebounds before sitting out the fourth quarter, and host Los Angeles overcame a poor shooting night by Kobe Bryant (12 points) to rout New Jersey and improve the NBA's best record to 12-1.

OVER AND BACK

Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut will be sidelined for a week to 10 days after sustaining a bone bruise to his left knee Monday night in a loss at Orlando. ... Miami Heat forward Dorell Wright is expected to miss at least three weeks after having surgery yesterday to remove debris from his left knee. ... Charlotte Bobcats' top scorer Jason Richardson practiced yesterday for the first time since undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery and could play tonight in Toronto.