SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Kyle Korver is not ready to pass any tests on the basics and intricacies of his new team's offense. In the meantime, he'll find a way to make due.

"I still didn't know what was going on half the time," Korver said after he and the Cleveland Cavaliers tasted victory for the first time together in a 120-108 win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night at the Golden 1 Center.

"But I knew what was going on half the time. So that was really helpful."

Kyrie Irving scored 26 points, Korver added 18 and lights-out shooting, and the Cavaliers held off three runs by the Kings to end a mini two-game slide.

Cleveland hadn't won since acquiring Korver, the long-range bomber in his 14th season who came to the Cavaliers last Saturday in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks.

"This morning is the first time he had a chance to practice to see what we wanted to execute and how he can be a part of that," Cavaliers forward LeBron James said. "It's great to see him make those shots, and we wanted to keep finding him."

James added 16 points and 15 assists for Cleveland in his annual visit to the city where he made his debut in 2003. James' teams have won on nine of their 12 trips to Sacramento, and he has averaged 28.0 points, 6.3 assists and 6.8 rebounds in those games.

DeMarcus Cousins had 26 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds for the Kings (16-23), but Sacramento never got closer than six points after falling behind 30-11 in the first quarter. The Kings have lost four of five on a season-high seven-game homestand.

"I'm happy about how we battled," Kings coach Dave Joerger said. "We got three stops in a row 11 times, which we haven't done for a long time. And we fought like crazy."

Korver has proved to be one of the best long-range shooters in the league's history, and he was shooting 44 percent in 32 games with the Hawks. But he missed all five 3's he took with Cleveland in his first two games with them and missed eight of 10 shots overall.

But after a long shootaround, in which he worked extensively with Cleveland's second unit on set plays with options, Korver looked like his normal self against Sacramento. He went 7 of 10 overall and 4 of 6 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.

"Obviously, it's just how I play," he said. "I've got to have that chemistry and feel with the guys, and they have to have the same thing with me, too. There's a lot of movement and a lot of screen movement, and it takes chemistry to make those things happen."

Irving also made a big contribution as did guard Iman Shumpert. Irving made 10 of 22 shots from the field, putting behind him a four-game slump in which he'd made just 29 of 80 (36.2 percent). Shumpert, inserted by coach Tyronne Lue into the starting lineup, added 16 points in 26 minutes.

"He had great pace," James said. "Great rhythm."

The Cavaliers exploded early, building the 19-point lead in the first quarter. Sacramento reduced a 19-point first-quarter deficit to 43-31 with six minutes left in the first half, but Korver scored seven points during a 16-4 run that put the Cavaliers back ahead 59-35.

The Kings got that deficit down to 66-58 with 7:02 left the third quarter, but Irving scored nine of Cleveland's next 14 as it built the lead back to 80-59.

That lead got squeezed to 90-84, but Korver hit a 3-pointer, James made an old-fashioned three-point play and Channing Frye nailed a 3-pointer, as Cleveland ripped off an 11-4 run to put the game away. Frye finished with 10 points.

Rudy Gay added 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and contributed 10 rebounds, and Ty Lawson led a frantic rally by scoring 13 of his 17 in the fourth quarter for the Kings.

NOTES: Cavaliers F LeBron James released a video posted to the website uninterrupted.com speaking to fans and promoting a new shoe and said he treasures every trip he makes to Sacramento. James, speaking from his hotel room in his 12th visit to the city where he made his NBA debut on Oct. 29, 2003 (he missed one season with an injury and another to a lockout) said "it's crazy how time flies. ... I think about that every time I come back to this place. It's the first thing I think of, being an 18-year-old kid." ... James also told Cleveland.com that in his opinion, Kings C DeMarcus Cousins "is the best big man in our game." Cousins averaged 28 points and 10.1 rebounds in 34.5 minutes per game while playing all but one of Sacramento's first 39 contests. ... Cousins will tie Vlade Divac and Lioniel Simmons for seventh on the team's all-time games list when Sacramento hosts Oklahoma City on Sunday. .He played his 453rd Friday.. Cleveland coach Tyronne Lue inserted G Iman Shumpert into the starting lineup, replacing G DeAndre Liggins, who had started 12 straight games since G J.R. Smith fractured his thumb.