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James carries Cavaliers over Bobcats in double overtime

Jan 12, 2008 - 5:34 AM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Raymond Felton's heroics sent the game into overtime, allowing LeBron James to take over.

James scored 12 of his game-high 31 points after regulation to go along with a career-high 19 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers outlasted the Charlotte Bobcats, 113-106, in two overtimes on Friday.

After the teams were still deadlocked after the first five-minute extra period, James scored eight points during the decisive 13-1 run, giving the Cavaliers a 113-103 lead with 29 seconds remaining in the second overtime.

"This was a good win for us," James said. "Their team made play after play after play, but we did a good job at getting the stops that we needed and we made big shots."

James shot 10-of-20 from the floor for the game and added eight assists and four steals to go along with his 16th 30-point game of the season.

"My team needs me to make big plays down the stretch and that's what I did," James said. "It wasn't just me though, everybody made plays. I'm their leader so it looks like I make the most plays, but tonight everybody else was making plays, too."

A game after defeating the team with the league's best record - the Boston Celtics - the Bobcats gave the defending Eastern Conference champions all they could handle, prolonging the game two extra periods thanks to their point guard.

Trailing by three points with five seconds to play in regulation, Felton raced up the floor and drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with three-tenths of a second to play, tying the score at 93-93 and sending the contest into overtime.

"We played hard, we had a chance to win a game," Bobcats coach Sam Vincent said. "We got good looks, we got it in the people's hands where we wanted to get it. They just didn't make the shots."

There was similar drama in the first overtime thanks to Matt Carroll, whose 3-pointer from the right corner gave Charlotte a three-point bulge before Damon Jones made a shot from the arc to tie the game at 100-100 with 60 seconds to play in the first overtime.

"It was big," James said. "They continued to leave him open. He passed up on some (shots). I told him not to pass up on any more if I was going to give him the ball, and he knocked them down."

"Anytime you get open looks and you call yourself a shooter, you have to be confident in your ability to make the shot," Jones said.

James missed a driving layup that the Bobcats rebounded with 15 seconds to play, and Felton missed a jumper with a chance to win it at the buzzer of the first overtime.

Anderson Varejao added a season-high 16 points and 18 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who improved to 6-0 all-time against the Bobcats at home. It was also the first time in Cavaliers' history that they had two players with at least 18 rebounds.

The Cavaliers trailed by eight entering the fourth before they rallied to tie the game at 86-86 on James' layup with 2:40 left to play. After Carroll made a jumper, James answered with a shot from the arc to give Cleveland its first lead of the fourth quarter at 89-88 with 1:59 remaining in regulation.

In all, the contest featured 17 ties and 21 lead changes.

Gerald Wallace had 27 points and Nazr Mohammed added 21 and 15 rebounds - both season highs - for the Bobcats, who had their two-game winning streak snapped.

"We were just outmanned and we ran out of gas at the end," Wallace said. "We put ourselves in a position to win the game on a number of occasions. It was a (heck) of an effort."

Jason Richardson scored 17 of his 19 points in the first quarter but missed 18 of his last 19 shots from the floor, shooting 7-of-26 overall.

Felton left the game with 38 seconds left in the second overtime with a right ankle sprain. Vincent said that there was "no swelling" and it is uncertain if he will miss any time.