Monday, March 23, 2009
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Long before LeBron James arrived and started Cleveland’s climb toward the top of the NBA, Zydrunas Ilgauskas was quietly putting up numbers on some terrible teams.
So as Ilgauskas continues to rewrite the Cavaliers’ record book, it means so much more that it comes while his team is doing the same.
James had 30 points and 11 rebounds, and the Cavaliers won their ninth straight game, beating the New Jersey Nets 96-88 on Sunday night to tie a franchise record with their 57th victory.
Ilgauskas added 18 points as the Cavaliers improved the NBA’s best record to 57-13. He had four blocks and passed John “Hot Rod” Williams (1,200) as the Cavs’ career leader with 1,202. He already became Cleveland’s top rebounder earlier this season.
“These things are always nice, but especially when the team is doing well,” said Ilgauskas, who arrived in 1996. “If you’re on a bad team, you can’t enjoy it as much, and this so far has been a special season. A lot of records have fallen.”
The Cavs weren’t especially sharp while playing their second game in two days, but now get some time off before they play host to the Nets on Wednesday in the back end of a home-and-home series. A victory in that one would give Cleveland its second double-digit winning streak this season.
It would also make the Cavs the winningest team in their history. Cleveland went 57-25 in both 1988-89 and 1991-92.
“It’s not the main goal, but any time you get an opportunity to write your name or write your team into the record books, you should be proud,” James said.
James finished two assists shy of a fifth triple-double during the winning streak on a night where he was content to let his big men handle the scoring load early. Anderson Varejao finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, helping Cleveland outrebound New Jersey 46-37.
“He plays at his own pace,” the Nets’ Jarvis Hayes said of James. “He was getting his teammates involved in the first three quarters and slowly got more engaged in the game offensively. It’s tough, he ended up with 30 and it seemed like he was having a quiet night, when he was two assists shy of a triple-double.”
Vince Carter had 25 points and nine rebounds, but without injured All-Star point guard Devin Harris the Nets simply lacked the firepower to hang with the NBA’s toughest defensive team. New Jersey had its two-game winning streak snapped and fell two games behind Chicago for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.