James: Coach should have played Ilgauskas

INDEPENDENCE (AP) — The Cavaliers concluded practice on Monday with a lighthearted game of football. The one player missing was the same one missing Saturday night — Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Ilgauskas was set to become Cleveland’s franchise leader in games played Saturday against Dallas, but coach Mike Brown elected not to play him. It’s a decision that has upset Ilgauskas and LeBron James.

“I definitely thought he should’ve played,” James said. “As a friend of his, I was very upset and I know he was, also.”

Ilgauskas shares the record, currently at 723 games, with the team’s general manager, Danny Ferry.

He is typically one of the last players to leave Cleveland’s locker room after games. On Saturday, he was the first. He also declined to participate in the team’s pickup football game on Monday, instead choosing to shoot at a basket with an assistant coach for a few minutes before leaving the court without speaking to reporters.

“I’m not trying to stir up anything with coach or whatever is going on with the organization, but sometimes one game is the smaller things,” James said. “What was on the line was something way bigger than us playing the Mavericks. That was ’Z’ breaking the record.”

Coach Mike Brown said he intended on Ilgauskas playing his usual allotment of about 25 minutes, but the game’s tempo prevented it from happening. Brown stuck with a smaller lineup that included playing James at center for a short stretch in what was arguably Cleveland’s finest game of the season.

Shaquille O’Neal played just 25 minutes in the Cavaliers’ 111-95 win against Dallas that included big nights from Jamario Moon, Delonte West and Anderson Varejao, each of whom played at least 28 minutes.

“It wasn’t planned. Even as the course of the game went on, I didn’t expect to not play him,” Brown said. “You can call it a mistake, you can call it a coaching decision. I get paid good money and I feel like I’ve done a decent job of treating guys right. Maybe in a lot of guys’ minds, I didn’t this time, I don’t know. But that’s part of being a head coach.”

Ilgauskas has spent his entire 14-year career in Cleveland. He missed essentially three full seasons early on while dealing with broken bones in his feet. He is the team’s all-time leader in blocks and rebounds and one of four in team history to score at least 10,000 points.

“He’s been everything to this franchise and has given everything since he’s been here,” James said. “A lot of the guys that are here do not have the same history that I have with Z. They don’t know what Z has been through.

“I don’t think any of us would’ve been mad if Z started. He could’ve started, been subbed as soon as the game started and that would’ve given the fans a chance to give him a standing ovation. That’s just the way I would’ve envisioned it.”