LOS ANGELES: LeBron James sparkled early and then let his teammates shine late.
“King James” collected 41 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists as the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers held off a late rush to trim the Portland Trail Blazers for the sixth straight time, with a 106-94 victory on Sunday night.
“I just read the defense and whatever they give me then I’ll take the opportunity,” James said. “I don’t think I had many assists in the first half. They started to double (team) me and my teammates knocked down shots.
Mo Williams scored 16, Brazil-native Anderson Varejao had 12, while Shaquille O’Neal finished with 11 and just as many rebounds for Cleveland (29-10), which bounced back from Friday’s loss at Denver on its five-game West Coast road trip.
Brandon Roy scored 34 points, LaMarcus Aldridge added 18 with 13 boards for Portland (23-16), which beat the defending NBA Champion LA Lakers on Friday but couldn’t take the scalps of the Eastern Conference leaders.
James erupted for 20 points in the opening quarter and had 31 by halftime to give the Cavs a 64-49 lead.Cleveland opened up a 17-point cushion but it was sliced to 80-78 after three periods.
Roy’s three-pointer with 6:55 minutes left capped a 9-0 run to square the contest at 89-89. However, with James turning facilitator, the Cavs responded with a 9-0 burst of their run to regain the lead.
Varejao’s basket snapped the tie while threes by Mo Williams and Jawad Williams gave them a 98-89 edge.
Lakers 95, Bucks 77: Reserve Shannon Brown scored 19 points, Andrew Bynum had 17 with a career-high 18 rebounds and the Lakers never trailed to snap a modest two-game slide.
Kobe Bryant finished with 12 points — 18 below his league-best average — on 4-of-21 shooting for the Lakers (29-8) who played without Spanish All-Star forward Pau Gasol (left hamstring strain) for the fourth straight game.
Hornets 115, Wizards 110: Chris Paul had 26 points, 14 assists and the tie-breaking jumper with 2:54 left, carrying the red-hot Hornets (19-16) to their sixth straight victory. Antawn Jamison had a season-high tying 32 points for host Washington (12-23) which lost its third straight meeting this season to New Orleans despite shooting a sizzling 58 percent from the field.
Celtics 114, Raptors 107: Rasheed Wallace scored 29 points, Rajon Rondo had 22 along with 13 assists and 10 rebounds for his first triple double of the season, leading the visiting Celtics to their seventh straight win over the Raptors. Chris Bosh had 31 points and 13 rebounds for Toronto (19-19), which had its six-game home winning streak stopped.
Spurs 97, Nets 85: Argentine ace Manu Ginobili scored 21 points, Frenchman Ian Mahinmi had career-highs of 15 with nine rebounds in his season-debut and the Spurs (22-13) dropped the league-worst Nets for the 14th straight time. Brook Lopez topped visiting New Jersey (3-37) with 28 points and 11 rebounds.
Clippers 94, Heat 84: Chris Kaman collected 22 points with 14 rebounds, Baron Davis had 11 points with 14 assists, and the Clippers’ (17-18) sixth straight home win moved them within one-game of .500. Dwyane Wade led Miami (18-17) with 24 points.
