James moves to top of Cavaliers’ chart

CLEVELAND -- LeBron James passed Brad Daugherty as Cleveland’s career scoring leader in the first quarter and finished with 29 points, leading the Cavaliers to a 90-83 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Friday night in a possible first-round playoff preview.

In only his fifth NBA season, James moved to the top of the franchise’s career scoring chart, a remarkable achievement for a player whose potential seems limitless.

He scored 23 points in the second half, including 11 during the last 7:19 as the Cavaliers won their ninth in a row at home.

It took Daugherty 548 games to amass 10,389 points. James, the NBA’s leading scorer in his fifth pro season, has 10,414 points in only 380 games. He had 12 rebounds and five assists.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 16 points for Cleveland, which opened a 4 1/2 -game lead over the Raptors in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

James overtook Daugherty with a familiar move. Driving through traffic in the lane, he went strong to the basket and muscled in one of his patented, scooping layups.

The sellout crowd at Quicken Loans Arena immediately rose to give James a thundering ovation and when a timeout was called, the 23-year-old superstar walked to the bench to receive high-fives and hugs from his teammates.

“The crazy thing about it is that he’s 23,” Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said. “Absolutely amazing.”