Los Angeles - LeBron James took care of the offence, and the Cleveland Cavaliers took care of the ball.  James scored six of his 26 points in overtime Thursday night to go along with 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his seventh triple-double of the season, leading the Cavaliers past the short-handed Portland Trail Blazers 97-92.

   The Cavaliers improved the NBA's best mark to 55-13 and 31-1 at home with their seventh-straight victory en route to tying a league record for fewest turnovers in a game with two.

   "I'm amazed looking at the [stat] sheet to have two turnovers in an overtime game," said Cavs coach Mike Brown, who won his 200th game. "Obviously, that was the difference in this ballgame.

   "LeBron was outstanding, doing other things for us besides scoring, like rebounding and working that basketball to get us shots," he added. "It was ugly, but you have to win ugly sometimes."

   "We did a good job protecting the ball," James said. "Defensively, we were great, and we didn't allow them to get any easy buckets because we didn't turn the ball over, and it allowed us to set our defence."

   With James scoring just four points in the first half, the cold-shooting Cavaliers hit 31 per cent of their field goals and trailed 34-31 at halftime. However, the league leaders later began to find the mark against the Trail Blazers.

   Lithuanian-native Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 12 of his 21 points in the third quarter, James added eight and the Cavs closed on a 14-5 run to take a 65-57 advantage.

   Cleveland led by eight in the fourth quarter but couldn't hold on to it, and the game was squared at 82 at the two-minute mark.

   James then made a driving layup, deflected Travis Outlaw's three-point try in the left corner and banked in a fade-away runner to give the Cavs a four-point lead with 36 seconds remaining.

   However, Brandon Roy made four free throws, the last two with 3.4 ticks remaining after drawing a foul on James. It eventually sent the game into overtime when James missed the game-winning drive at the buzzer.

   The Cavs regrouped, however. James opened the extra session with a layup. Ilgauskas had a free throw and long jumper from the left wing, giving the Cavs a 91-86 edge with 3:15 remaining.

   After three free throws by Joel Przybilla drew the Blazers to 91-89, James swooped in for a layup on the right side and followed with an 2.5-metre jump hook in the lane with 41 seconds left to clinch the victory.

   Roy scored 24 points, and Outlaw added 17 for Portland (43-26), which was without starting forwards LaMacus Aldridge (concussion) and Frenchman Nicolas Batum (left ankle sprain) and dropped into a tie with idle New Orleans for fifth place in the Western Conference playoff race.

   "You've gotta make plays down the stretch, and we didn't do it," Portland coach Nate McMillan said. "They did. They made buckets when they needed to; they got stops when they needed to."

   Elsewhere: LA Lakers 114, Golden State Warriors 106:

   Spaniard Pau Gasol had 21 points with 14 rebounds, Kobe Bryant also scored 21 and the Lakers avoided a late collapse to beat the visiting Warriors.

   Lamar Odom collected 16 points and 12 boards for the Western Conference-leading Lakers (54-14), which remain one game behind Cleveland for the NBA's top spot.

   The Lakers led by 17 with 7:05 to play, but a 23-9 run sliced to 107-104 with 1:31 remaining. On the ensuing play, Trevor Ariza (13 points) nailed a three-point dagger from the top of the arc to essentially wrap up the win.

   Monta Ellis had 27 points, and Kelenna Azubuike matched a season-high 25 for the non-playoff-contending Warriors (24-44), which have lost 28 of their last 31 visits to the Lakers. Atlanta Hawks 95, Dallas Mavericks 87:

   Joe Johnson scored 24 points, Flip Murray added 19 off the bench and the surging Hawks (41-28) completed a perfect home stand with their seventh-straight victory.

   German wunderkind Dirk Nowitzki had 23 points with 12 rebounds for Dallas (41-28), which despite losing three of its last four games, lead idle Phoenix by 3.5 games for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.