CLEVELAND: LeBron James joined Oscar Robertson’s elite company and Kevin Love scored a season-high 34 points in the Cavaliers’ 117-103 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday.
James joined Robertson as the only players in NBA history to rank in the top 25 in both scoring and assists. James’ assist on Kevin Love’s 3-pointer with five minutes left in the second quarter gave him 6,387, moving him ahead of Norm Nixon and into 25th place.
James is 19th on the all-time scoring list and should pass Reggie Miller for 18th place Wednesday night at Toronto.
Robertson ranks 11th all-time in scoring (26,710) and sixth in assists (9,887).
Forward Andrew Nicholson scored 18 points off the bench and center Nikola Vucevic had 12 points and five rebounds for the Magic, which rallied from an early 12-point to take a 42-34 lead in the second quarter before Love heated up.
Love scored 17 straight for the Cavs during a 5½-minute stretch in the second quarter that included three 3-pointers. He set a season high for points by halftime and the Cavs cruised to their 11th consecutive win in this series.
James has already reached a number of milestones this season, including the youngest to score 25,000 points. Now he joins Robertson on another exclusive list.
“Every time there’s a young great player everybody talks about Michael [Jordan], but to me he’s always been more like a Magic [Johnson] or an Oscar-type player because of his vision,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said of James. “That’s what makes him so difficult. If you think you’re going to give him a steady diet of running and double teaming him, he’s going to carve you up.”
James matched a season high with 13 assists to go with 15 points and six rebounds, guard Matthew Dellavedova had a season-high 15 points, nine assists and no turnovers and J.R. Smith scored a season-high 26 points. He made six more 3-pointers and is now shooting 47 percent from deep in his last four games.
Tristan Thompson grabbed 14 rebounds and the Cavs’ 18 3-pointers were a season high.
The Cavs improved to an Eastern Conference-best 11-3 on the same day James won the player of the week award for the East. The Cavs led 59-55 at halftime before Smith scored 11 in the third and the Magic shot 38 percent in the quarter (7-of-18).
The Cavs led 92-75 going to the fourth and eventually increased the lead to 23.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.