Cleveland, OH (My Sportsbook) - LeBron James led all scorers with 25 points and had 12 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers claimed their 13th straight win after defeating the Detroit Pistons, 79-73, at Quicken Loans Arena.

Delonte West chipped in with 12 points and six assists for the Cavaliers, who already have locked up the Central Division title. They improved to a spectacular 36-1 at home this season and now have a 5 1/2-game lead over idle Boston and Orlando for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Cavaliers now have a three-game advantage over the Los Angeles Lakers for the best record in the league. LA lost 94-84 to Charlotte on Tuesday.

Anderson Varejao and Mo Williams each had 11 points in the win.

"It was a good, ugly, physical, grind-it-out type of game," said Cleveland head coach Mike Brown. "We used to have a lot of those in the past, so it was fun to get back to that tonight. That's a good basketball team down in that locker room. For us to come out with the win is a good win, especially playing that way. I thought our team defense was great."

Richard Hamilton had a team-high 13 points and six rebounds, while Allen Iverson went for 11 points off the bench for Detroit, which was unable to build off a 101-97 win over Philadelphia on Sunday. The Pistons have dropped seven of 10 overall.

Detroit sits in seventh place in the East, 2 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for sixth and one game ahead of Chicago, which is in eighth.

Rasheed Wallace returned to the lineup after missing the previous 11 games with a calf injury and scored nine points and had nine rebounds in defeat. However, the volatile forward was given his 16th technical foul of the season late in the third quarter that will draw an automatic one-game suspension from the NBA.

With the game deadlocked at 44-44 after one half, the Cavaliers quickly built a five-point lead at 52-47 following a pair of free throws by Varejao nearly 3 1/2 minutes into the third. But the Pistons came back to tie the contest at 58-58 with 1:45 left in the stanza.

James and Wally Szczerbiak each made a jumper and the Cavaliers held a 62-58 advantage after three quarters.

With the hosts ahead by a 65-58 margin in the early stages of the fourth, a 9-0 surge by the Pistons put the visitors ahead by two with 6:50 remaining.

However, James' three-point play with 4:37 left put Cleveland back in front at 70-69 and the Cavs would not surrender the lead.

Varejao's layup, James' three-point play and another make stretched the hosts lead to 77-69 with 2:15 left. The Cavs would make their free throws in the closing seconds and earn the 79-73 victory.

"It was our turnovers all night," said Pistons head coach Michael Curry. "We probably should have been up by eight points in the first half. But, we had eight turnovers. We did a better job in the third (quarter) taking care of the ball. Then, we had six turnovers in the fourth quarter. You can't come in here and turn the ball over 15 times against this team."

Trailing 19-12 after one quarter, the Cavaliers closed the second on a 10-2 run started by a Daniel Gibson three-pointer. After Hamilton made a pair from the free-throw line, James' three-point play in the closing seconds evened things at 44-44 heading into the break.

Game Notes

Cleveland begins a brief two-game road trip at Washington on Thursday, while the Pistons resume their three-game road trip at New Jersey on Wednesday...Detroit fell to 17-19 on the road this season...The Cavs won three of the four matchups with the Pistons this year and won the season series for the first time since 1997-98.