LeBron James became the youngest player in National Basketball Association 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 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.

LeBron James

"It is an accomplishment," James told reporters.

"It is the individual hard work that I put in during the summer time. It translates into what I do now on the court during the season.

"It is a credit to myself and to the guys I work out with in the offseason."

In other NBA games, it was: Suns 100, Spurs 95; Mavericks 111, Magic 108; Heat 91, Timberwolves 87; Pacers 119, Knicks 92; Hawks 116, Jazz 111; Warriors 125, Grizzlies 117; and Trail Blazers 88, Hornets 76.

In Cleveland, Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored the Cavaliers' first six points of the second overtime to seal the win. He finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds.

"We were concentrating so much on LeBron that we forgot about Zydrunas, and he shot the ball well," Bucks center Andrew Bogut said.

"None of his buckets really were inside. When he shoots the ball like that, he's tough to stop."

James played 51 of 58 minutes in the marathon game. Michael Redd, who led Milwaukee with 22 points, played 54 minutes while Mo Williams played 51.

Devine Brown finished with 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Cavaliers. Daniel Gibson added 12 points.

Williams ended up with 18 points while Desmond Mason scored 15 and Charlie Villanueva added 13 for Milwaukee.

The Cavaliers, the defending Eastern Conference champions, have still lost eight of their last 10.

In San Antonio, Grant Hill had 22 points and Phoenix handed 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 mouth 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 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.

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 3-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 3-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 defeats coming at San Antonio, Phoenix and Milwaukee.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily December 19, 2007)