NEW ORLEANS -- It was an epic battle of All-Star No. 23s, about as stunning as a prime-time NBA audience could have hoped for.

In the maroon-and-gold corner: Cleveland's No. 23, LeBron James, who scored 23 of the Cavaliers' final 26 points in regulation to send Friday night's game against the New Orleans Pelicans into overtime.

And in the white corner: New Orleans' No. 23, Anthony Davis, who shook off an injury to his lower left leg to score 31 points, including six in overtime, to power the Pelicans to a 114-108 victory over the Cavaliers on Friday night at the Smoothie King Center.

Davis said veteran center Kendrick Perkins, who hasn't played since injuring his pectoral muscle in the first week of the season, whispered in his ear just before overtime started. The Pelicans were still reeling after blowing an 11-point lead with 5:25 left in regulation.

"Perk told me, this is the time when, if you're great ... so I was just being aggressive," Davis said. "Coach drew up the first play for me, and I was just being aggressive knowing that I wanted to win this game. It was just about me knocking down the shots."

With the game tied after regulation at 105, the Pelicans raced to a 111-106 lead in the first two minutes of overtime, with Davis hitting a floater in the lane and then finishing a 6-1 run with an 8-foot hook on the baseline. He added a 15-foot jumper on the Pelicans' next possession, and New Orleans led 113-108 with 2:12 left.

James, who finished with a game-high 37 points, was held scoreless in overtime, missing the only two shots he took. In the fourth quarter, James almost won the game single-handedly by hitting 9 of 15 shots.

But his 15-foot, fadeaway jumper over forward Dante Cunningham failed to go down as regulation time expired.

"What else was I going to do?" James said of his fourth-quarter heroics. "I tried to make something happen for our team, be aggressive and see if I could make a push, and if not, at least I put in the effort."

Davis added 12 rebounds and four steals as the Pelicans (5-15) snapped a four-game losing streak and recorded their fifth consecutive home victory over the Cavaliers (13-6), who dropped their second straight.

"It was a good win against a real quality team that has one of the better records in the league," said Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry. "The biggest thing is that we let a double-figure lead slip away and got into overtime. Usually, those are the kind of games that it's hard to recover from."

New Orleans had to battle to get the game into overtime. After James made two free throws to make it 105-102 with 15.5 seconds left, Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday connected on a 3-pointer from the right wing over Matthew Dellavedova with 8.0 seconds left to tie the game.

"Reke (Tyreke Evans) passed it to me and I let it go," Holiday said. "When I let it go, it felt good right when it left my hands. I think (Dellavedova) thought I was going to drive and I kind of side-stepped instead of going toward him and got a free look."

Cleveland coach David Blatt said while he was pleased with his team's fourth quarter comeback, losing a three-point lead at the end of regulation was a bitter feeling.

"From down 11 we were up three," Blatt said. "With one defensive possession and one offensive possession to win. It's just unfortunate that we couldn't close it out when we had the chance."

New Orleans trailed 62-56 three minutes into the third quarter, but the Pelicans went on a 26-8 run over the next 6:42 to take an 82-70 lead. Guard Eric Gordon, who finished 19 points, nailed two 3-pointers and had 10 points in the surge, and forward Ryan Anderson, who had 18, added a pair of long-range jumpers.

Davis also made a pair of 3-pointers in the second half as he continues to expand his offensive game. Davis said the scary-looking injury to his lower left leg that he suffered in the second quarter did not affect him when he returned from the locker room three minutes later.

"I'm good," he said. "We never once thought we were going to lose this game. Even when we were down three, we still thought we had a chance to win or go into overtime. So, when Jrue made the shot, we said we might as well go ahead and win since we got this far."

NOTES: The Pelicans shook up their starting lineup again, starting Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon in the backcourt and bringing PG Jrue Holiday off the bench. "We're going to try to stay with that lineup for a little while and try to see if we can get some consistency," New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said. ... This was the first time Gentry faced LeBron James since the NBA Finals in June, when Gentry was the Warriors' lead assistant. Asked for his biggest memory of James, Gentry said: "That nobody can guard him. ... Our whole philosophy at Golden State was to see if we could take the other guys out of the game, and then you just live with what he's going to do." ... The Cavaliers had not scored 100 or more points in their previous four games. "We turned it over too much (averaging 16 turnovers) and we haven't shot it as well (39.9 percent)," Cleveland coach David Blatt said.