James powers Cavs past Sixers

Nov 26, 2006, 4:00 GMT

Cleveland, OH - LeBron James scored 25 points and doled out 11 assists, as the Cleveland Cavaliers torched the Philadelphia 76ers 108-95.

Zydrunas Illgauskas scored 18 and pulled down 15 rebounds for Cleveland, which stopped a two-game skid. Drew Gooden scored 13 and grabbed eight boards for the Cavs.

Allen Iverson scored 31 for Philadelphia, which has lost eight of 10 games since opening the season with three straight wins. Andre Iguodala scored 17 and raked in eight rebounds, and Willie Green added 13 points off of the bench. Shavlik Randolph scored a career-high 12 points for Philadelphia.

Cleveland took control of the game in the second quarter, outscoring the Sixers 35-13 to jump out to a 13-point lead, and then Philadelphia never really threatened.

'We tried to come out and maintain focus,' said James. 'Defensively, as a team we tried to get a hand in Allen's face and try to make him miss.'

Philadelphia scored six straight to pull to within 94-86 with 5:24 left in the game. That was as close as the Sixers would get, though, as the Cavs promptly scored seven straight, with James converting a three-point play to put Cleveland up 101-86 with just under four minutes left.

The Sixers were unable to substantially cut into the double-digit Cleveland lead at any point during the third quarter. Two Iguodala free throws cut the Cavs lead to 75-60 with just over a minute left in the quarter, but the Cavs pulled back away, with James hitting a lay-up with two seconds left to put Cleveland back up 12, at 82-70, going into the fourth quarter.

Randolph led the Sixers out to a fast start, eclipsing his career-high in points in the first quarter alone with 10 as Philadelphia ran out on a 16-4 run to start the game. The Sixers led 25-16 at the end of the quarter.

The Cavs opened the second quarter with a 10-1 run that erased Philadelphia's nine-point lead. Cleveland nudged ahead 29-28 on a three-point play by Sasha Pavlovic with 8:10 left in the first half.

'We gave the game away,' said Iverson. 'We stopped playing the way were playing. We stopped scoring and then that led to us not playing hard on defense.'

A Rodney Carney driving lay-up put the Sixers back on top 36-34 with just over five minutes left in the second quarter, but from then on out it was all Cleveland. Illgauskas scored six points to help cue 12 straight by Cleveland to put the Cavs up 10 at 46-36.

Following a lay-up by Iverson, the Cavs ripped off five more to close out the half on a 17-2 run, taking a 51-38 lead into halftime.

Game Notes

Cleveland outrebounded Philadelphia 49-36.

Cleveland shot 50 percent from behind the arc, hitting 8-of-16 shots.

Cleveland sported throwback uniforms from its 1986-87 team for the first time at home. The Cavs will wear the old, bright orange duds a number of times through the season to celebrate the 20- year anniversary of the 1986-87 team.

Ilgauskas had 12 offensive rebounds to tie a team record.

© 2006 The Sports Network