James passes points milestone in Cavaliers' victory over Bucks

CLEVELAND, Ohio: LeBron James became the youngest player in NBA history to score 9,000 career points in helping the Cleveland Cavaliers edge the Milwaukee Bucks 104-99 in double overtime on Monday.

The 22-year-old James registered 31 points to boost his career total to 9,028, passing the milestone a year-and-a-half younger than Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored the Cavaliers' first six points of the second overtime to ensure the win and finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds.

Michael Redd led Milwaukee with 22 points.

At San Antonio, Grant Hill had 22 points and the Phoenix Suns beat the Spurs 100-95, handing San Antonio its first home loss of the season.

Leandro Barbosa added 18 points for the Suns, whose win might have helped them get the bad taste out of their mouths they brought with them after losing a controversial and testy Western Conference semifinals series last season.

Tim Duncan led the Spurs with a season-high 36 points and 17 rebounds in his second game back since sitting out for four with a sprained ankle, and Manu Ginobili added 18 points. But the Spurs were without Tony Parker, who sat out for third straight game with a sprained left ankle.

In Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki scored 11 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter and Dallas shut down Dwight Howard and Orlando in the final three quarters 111-108.

The Magic thought they'd tied the game at 109 when Keith Bogans nailed a long jumper over Nowitzki's outstretched arm with 3.5 seconds left, but officials correctly ruled that his right toe was on the three-point line, keeping Dallas ahead by a point.

Jerry Stackhouse made a pair of free throws to stretch the lead back to three, but Orlando still had one last chance to tie it - a long, running three-pointer from the right sideline by Keyon Dooling as time expired.

The arena got real quiet as everyone watched the ball float toward the rim, but it banged between the iron and the backboard and popped out, giving Dallas its fifth win in six games and sending Orlando to a rare road loss. The Magic are 12-4, with the other losses coming at San Antonio, Phoenix and Milwaukee.

In Miami, Dwyane Wade survived a horrendous shooting night to score 30 points, Udonis Haslem added 18 and Miami finally found a way to win, 91-87 at home over the Timberwolves.

Shaquille O'Neal scored 15 points and added eight rebounds before fouling out for Miami (7-17), which won for only the third time in 11 home games.

Wade shot 6-for-22, including 10 straight misses in one stretch. But he had 14 points in the final quarter, when Miami needed him most.

Al Jefferson had 22 points and 20 rebounds for Minnesota, his 17th double-double of the season. Sebastian Telfair finished with 17 points and a pair of reserves - Rashad McCants (19) and Craig Smith (11) - helped Minnesota outscore Miami's bench 44-21.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/19/2007 page24)