CLEVELAND -- LeBron James left the locker room Monday with a bag of Airborne and Tylenol PM.

Kevin Love left the game sick in the fourth quarter and did not return and Kyrie Irving was in street clothes nursing a hamstring injury.

The Cleveland Cavaliers' Big Three has been shipped to the sick bay, yet they still scraped out a 90-82 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on a night both teams struggled shooting.

James scored 26 points despite being the latest victim to the NBA's flu epidemic and Channing Frye, who has been sick for the last week, added 14 off the bench.

Love scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds before departing for the locker room late in the fourth quarter due to a bout with food poisoning. He shot just 5 of 19 from the floor and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts. Coach Tyronn Lue said Love has lost 10 pounds the last two days after he contracted food poisoning from fish he ate on the team's flight back from Charlotte on New Year's Eve.

"We didn't think he was going to be able to play," Lue said. "He came out there and gave us 24 strong minutes, which we needed. Just his presence on the floor was big for us and for him to gut it out the way he did was big for us."

The Cavaliers' starting backcourt of DeAndre Liggins and Jordan McRae combined to shoot just 2 of 10 in 34 minutes, and neither appeared in the fourth quarter. Cleveland shot 37.8 percent -- one of its worst-shooting nights of the season.

Rookie Kay Felder scored 12 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. In two games since he erupted for 33 points in a Development League game, Felder has averaged 10.5 points after averaging 5.4 for the season. Lue told Felder to be aggressive and play freely.

"Don't keep looking at the bench and looking over your shoulder. Just play," Lue told him. "He might have took one or two questionable shots, but when you got it going and you're a scorer, just let him go. I don't want to be a guy (that says), 'Oh, that's a bad shot,' so now he's thinking about it. No. Just play and if you're doing too much I'll let you know. But he's done a great job of taking advantage of his opportunity."

Anthony Davis scored 20 points and grabbed 17 rebounds and rookie Buddy Hield scored 20 points for the Pelicans, who had their four-game winning streak snapped on a night both teams missed plenty of open looks. New Orleans shot a season-worst 36.4 percent and led by 10 in the third quarter.

"We missed a lot of open shots, mainly myself," Davis said. "Too many easy shots around the basket that I missed. It's on me. I have to play a lot better. Everybody else played well. We got the looks we wanted and we just missed them in that fourth quarter."

Davis shot 10 of 27 on the night and the Pelicans were outscored 23-13 in the fourth quarter.

"We lost a little bit of our aggressiveness," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said. "When you're playing the NBA champs on the road and you have an opportunity like that, you've got to be able to execute and you've got to be able to seize the moment. We just kind of let it slip away."

The Cavaliers had so few healthy bodies that Lue had to scrap the team's traditional morning shootaround, instead electing for a pregame walk-through. He has done it a couple of times this season and conceded he may do it more often moving forward. On this night, however, only Felder and Frye shot better than 50 percent.

James shot 9 of 21, grabbed seven rebounds and passed for six assists. But he struggled establishing a rhythm until the fourth quarter on a night Irving missed his second game with a right hamstring injury. The team is still classifying it as "tightness" in the hamstring and Lue wouldn't offer a timetable for his return, even though he initially didn't believe Irving would miss any time at all with the injury.

"Can't have any excuses no matter what's going on with the team," James said. "Has to be next man up and when guys' numbers are called they've got to be ready to go. As ugly as it was tonight, just got to find a way to get through it and we did that."

NOTES: Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry acknowledged the team is negotiating with F Donatas Montiejunas on a contract but had no further comment. "He's officially not on our team," Gentry said. "I'm not sure I can even say anything about it legally. I'll just leave it at that." ... G/F Mike Dunleavy missed his second consecutive game with a sore right ankle. ... The Pelicans return home to host the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. ... The Cavaliers will host the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.