Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (Right) is defended by New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis during overtime of a game at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

DPA/New Orleans


The injury-plagued New Orleans Pelicans haven’t had much to cheer about this season, but that changed on Friday.
Anthony Davis tossed in six of his 31 points in the overtime to go along with 12 rebounds, and the Pelicans withstood a late heroic charge by LeBron James on Friday, for a thrilling 114-108 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“We were struggling,” said Davis, after his club ended a four-game slide.
“We said this was going to be the game we were going to get our mojo back.
“It was tough because LeBron got going in the fourth but we just kept staying together. We went to overtime and said we’re going to win it.”
Eric Gordon scored 19 points for bottom-feeding New Orleans (4-16) while Ryan Anderson added 18, and Jrue Holiday finished with 13.
James poured 37 points, including 23 in the fourth quarter, to wipe out a 14-point deficit midway through the frame.
But he went scoreless in the overtime, and the Cavs (13-6) were outpointed 9-3 en route to their second straight loss.
JR Smith fired in six triples for 18 points, and Kevin Love added 15 for Eastern Conference-best Cleveland.
“I tried to make something happen for our team, make a push,” said James, who added seven rebounds and eight assists. “I tried to help my team win a ballgame.”
Two James free throws put the Cavs on top 105-102 with 15.5 seconds left, but the Pelicans were not done.
Holiday buried a triple from the right wing out of a timeout with eight ticks to go and the game was knotted.
It wasn’t anything we drew up,” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said. “Jrue made the play for us.”
James looked to win it but missed a contested 19-foot step-back jumper with nine-tenths of a second remaining and the game went into overtime.
“It was a pretty good shot,” James said. “I thought it was in.”
The Pelicans opened the extra five-minute session on an 8-1 flurry behind three Davis jumpers and pulled away for their sixth straight home-court victory in the series.   
“We kind of let a double-digit lead slip away and got into overtime.” Gentry said.
“Usually those are the kind of games that are hard to recover from. But I think we did a great job. We got rejuvenated and Anthony was big down the stretch for us.”
Elsewhere: Houston Rockets 100, Dallas Mavericks 96: James Harden scored 25 points, including a game-sealing jumper with 7.4 seconds left to go along with eight rebounds and nine assists, carrying the visiting Rockets (9-11) past the Mavericks for their fourth win in the last five games.  Deron Williams led Dallas (11-9) with 22 points, while German juggernaut Dirk Nowitzki had 16 and 10 boards.  
Atlanta Hawks 100, LA Lakers 87: Al Horford scored 16 points, Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore added 15 apiece, and the Hawks 13-9) bounced the visiting Lakers in Kobe Bryant’s final game in Atlanta.
Bryant struggled to score 14 points on a frosty 4-of-19 shooting for the Lakers (3-16) after the 20-year future Hall of Famer announced on Sunday he plans to retire at the end of this season.
New York Knicks 108, Brooklyn Nets 91:  Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points, Latvian rookie Kristaps Porzingis added 19 with 10 rebounds, and the Knicks (10-10) built a 31-point cushion en route to crushing the visiting Nets. Brook Lopez scored 21 for Brooklyn (5-14) which dropped to 1-11 on the road.
Washington Wizards 109, Phoenix Suns 106: Bradley Beal scored 34 points, including two free throws with 11.6 seconds left, Ramon Sessions added 18 and the host Wizards (8-9) shaded the Suns in a sloppy contest featuring a whopping 46 turnovers. Eric Bledsoe scored 22 for Phoenix (8-13), which led by 10 in the fourth quarter but fell to 1-3 on its six-game road trip.
Detroit Pistons 102, Milwaukee Bucks 95: Andre Drummond collected 17 points with 23 rebounds, Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris scored 23 apiece, and the Pistons (11-9) never trailed in beating the visiting Bucks.
Khris Middelton topped Milwaukee (7-13) with 21 points, while Greg Monroe had 14 with 13 rebounds against his former team.