LeBron leads Cavaliers past Hawks 111-89
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-17 10:51

LeBron James scored 28 points, fellow All-Star Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 18 points and 13 rebounds and the Cleveland Cavaliers reached 30 victories before the All-Star break for just the fourth time with a 111-89 win over the undermanned Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night.

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James (23) drives past Atlanta Hawks' Donta Smith (15) in the second quarter Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005, in Cleveland. [AP]

James finished with six assists and five rebounds in 38 minutes as the Cavaliers completed a four-game season sweep of the Hawks (10-41).

The last time Cleveland had 30 wins before the All-Star break was 1992-93, when the Cavs made it to the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Cavs reached the 30-win plateau in advance of the All-Star game in 1991-92 and 1988-89 — also playoff seasons.

Antoine Walker had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks, who dressed only nine players and lost their 15th straight road game.

Drew Gooden had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Cavs, and Ilgauskas got 12 offensive boards to break Michael Cage's club record set in 1996.

The Cavaliers didn't have the Hawks under wraps until midway through the third period. Jeff McInnis hit a 3-pointer to put Cleveland ahead 66-56, triggering a 12-4 run that included a slam dunk by James, who also had one taken away.

All alone on a breakaway, James, who has not yet publicly announced if he'll compete in Saturday's All-Star dunk contest, got carried away and ran with the ball before taking off. He wheeled around with a surprised look when referee Bernie Fryer called him for traveling.

Moments later, James dunked off a feed from McInnis and Sasha Pavlovic's 3-pointer made it 71-58. The Cavaliers kept attacking and extended their lead to 18 when Pavlovic flipped the ball behind his back to a breaking Gooden, who dunked and finished off a three-point play to make it 84-66.

James drained a pair of 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter as the Cavaliers built a 99-74 lead with 8:44 left, giving Cleveland coach Paul Silas a chance to rest some of his starters for Thursday night's game at Minnesota.

The Hawks have no one athletic enough to guard James, and the Cavaliers knew it. Among the offensive keys Cleveland's coaching staff wrote on the message board in the locker room was this: "LeBron — Attack. Attack. Attack."

James settled mostly for outside shots in the first quarter before he began driving to the hoop. He scored seven straight points in Cleveland' 9-2 burst as the Cavaliers opened a 13-point lead.

Walker kept the Hawks close, scoring 17 in the first half as Atlanta stayed within 55-50 at the break.

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