Red-hot Cavaliers sizzle Bobcats

LeBron James’ 25 points led Cleveland to a 94-74 victory in Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — LeBron James scored 25 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Charlotte Bobcats 94-74 on Saturday night for their eighth straight victory.

The Cavaliers were never threatened and their relentless defense led to yet another rout in their franchise-best 17-3 start.

A night after holding Indiana’s Danny Granger to four points, James helped limit Charlotte’s second-leading scorer, Gerald Wallace, to one point on 0-of-6 shooting.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas was the force inside, grabbing 11 rebounds and finishing with five of Cleveland’s 10 blocks. The Bobcats shot 36 percent and didn’t hit 50 points until early in the fourth quarter.

James and Ilgauskas again got to sit out the final 12 minutes for the Cavaliers, who have won by at least 12 points in every game in their winning streak. Four of the wins have come by at least 20.

Daniel Gibson added 22 points for Cleveland, which has won 16 of 17 games after a 1-2 start, and held an opponent to 85 points or less for a fourth straight game.

D.J. Augustin scored 17 points, and Raymond Felton had 15 for the Bobcats, the NBA’s lowest-scoring team, which never stood a chance against the NBA’s second-best defense.

Charlotte fell behind 15-2 and missed 14 of its first 16 shots. Six of those shots were blocked, with the Bobcats’ frontcourt unable to match up with the big and bruising Cavaliers.

Wallace, Emeka Okafor and Sean May combined to shoot 2-for-14 in the first half as Cleveland built a 55-35 lead on James’ flurry of nine points in the final 2:20.

James, who had spent the afternoon at the same arena watching buddy Stephen Curry score 44 points for No. 22 Davidson in a win over North Carolina State, bounced back from his lowest scoring output of the season a night earlier.

Held to 11 points in a blowout win over the Pacers, James had 20 points by halftime, while continuing his lockdown defense that has defined Cleveland’s quick start.

It was a setback for the Bobcats, who had won four of six under coach Larry Brown before dropping a close game in Milwaukee on Friday. The flaw that Brown has lamented for months — a thin frontcourt — led to a mismatch as the Cavs continued to make a claim as one of the league’s best teams.

James had two steals, needing one more to pass Mark Price (734) for the most in franchise history. Ilgauskas moved within four rebounds of supplanting Brad Daugherty (5,227) as Cleveland’s career leader.