Los Angeles  - The lowly Washington Wizards haven't had many highs this season, but they seem to rise to the occasion against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Caron Butler scored 25 points, Antawn Jamison had 19 and the Wizards regrouped after blowing a 14-point lead to snap the Cavaliers' franchise-best 13-game winning streak, with a 109-101 home-court victory on Thursday night.

Due in large part to injuries, the Wizards (18-59) own the NBA's second-worst record. However, bolstered by the return of starting centre Brendan Haywood (wrist surgery) and All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas' (knee surgery) second game back, they cooled off the league-best Cavaliers (61-14) for the second time in three meetings this season.

"We play this team well, this is our rival, said Arenas, who finished with 11 points and 10 assists. "No matter how many players we have on the court, we know it's going to be a good game. Tonight we came out victorious."

Darius Songaila scored 17, Haywood had 12 points with 10 rebounds in his season-debut for Washington, which got a glimpse of what its like to finally field a healthy club following just its fourth win in the last 19 games.

"It feels good, because we're out there with a core of guys who know how to play; that knows where to be; that knows who's going to get the shots and when," Haywood explained. "That's basically what you're trying to do to become a championship level team.

"It's not going to happen for us this year, but these are the building blocks we need to be successful in the future."

MVP front-runner LeBron James scored 12 of his 31 points in the final quarter, but couldn't prevent the Cavaliers from suffering their first loss since March 13, while having their lead atop the Eastern Conference cut to 4.5 games over defending NBA champion Boston. Mo Williams netted 19 while Delonte West finished with 14.

"They've had a tough year, but records don't matter when we play the Wizards," James said, "They match up really well at every position with us."

Afterward, James shrugged off concern over the rare defeat. "You can't let one loss take away from what we've done and how successful we've been lately," he said. "We're going to take this game to heart, because we hate to lose and we're going to move on to the next one."

The Cavaliers trailed 68-54 midway through the third quarter, but caught the Wizards at 86 on Wally Szczerbiak's three-pointer with 7:13 remaining.

The Wizards responded, however. Dominic McGuire converted a three-point play, Songaila followed with one of his own and added a short jumper to trigger an 11-3 run, giving the hosts a 97-89 advantage.

James scored seven points, including a pair of three-pointers to pull the Cavs within 102-98 with 1:28 remaining.

However, Nick Young blew past West for a layup, Butler made two free throws after stealing an inbound pass from James to open up a 106-98 cushion with 22 ticks left win, and the Wizards improved to 8-1 at Verizon Centre against the Cavs since the 2004-05 season.

"Obviously, we had a nice run and we're going to lose some ballgames," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "Not taking anything away from the Wizards, because they did a tremendous job and they give us problems every year in the regular season. But the way we played should hurt us, especially on the defensive end of the floor. It's got to be painful to know we played that way."

Elsewhere:

Denver Nuggets 114, Utah Jazz 104 J. R. Smith poured in 28 points with a career-high-tying eight three-pointers, Carmelo Anthony scored 23, and the surging Nuggets rocked the visiting Jazz for their 10th win in the last 11 games.

Chauncey Billups netted 17 points, while Chris "Birdman" Andersen blocked a career-high eight shots for Northwest Division-leading Denver (50-26), which holds down the second seed in the West after posting consecutive 50-win seasons for the first time in franchise history.

C. J. Miles scored 19 points for Utah (46-29) which is seventh in the West despite losing sixth of its last seven road games. Deron Williams had 18 points with 10 assists, while Carlos Boozer finished with 15 points and 11 boards.

Philadelphia 76ers 105, Milwaukee Bucks 95 Lou Williams scored 21 points off the bench, Andre Iguodala added 20 and the Sixers rallied past the visiting Bucks to move into fifth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Andre Miller contributed 18 points and 11 assists for Philadelphia (39-35), which outscored the Bucks 55-36 in the second half for its fifth straight win in the series.

Ramon Sessions collected 18 points with 10 assists for fading Milwaukee (32-45) which fell 4.5 games behind idle Chicago for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. (dpa)