Big Man in the Middle

When the Cavaliers won the Eastern Conference crown against Detroit last June, the first person that LeBron James famously embraced in his postgame celebration was Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

“I ran to Z because when I was first drafted, Z was the first guy I’d seen,” said LeBron. “Z has been through a lot, been through losing seasons, year after year after year, and I promised him when I got drafted I was going to try to change it.”

Ilgauskas’ ailments seem like a hundred years ago as the Large Lithuanian is now one of the club’s true iron men – averaging 79 games per season over the past five years. During that time, he has made two trips to the All-Star Game and has been the Cavaliers cornerstone in the post.

After registering his 20th double-double of the season in Sunday’s win in L.A. – topping his total amount from last season – he just might be headed back to the mid-season classic for the third time.

“I’d rather have four days off,” laughed Z, when the All-Star Game gets mentioned. “Obviously, it would be a great honor if you get picked, but I’ve been there-done that. At this point in my career, it won’t matter that much to me. I don’t think I have the stats for that, but there’s just not a lot of big guys out there. I’ll be happy with either way it goes.”

Big Z got off to a big start and hasn’t looked back. On the season, he’s averaging 13.7 ppg – good for second on the squad – and a team-leading 9.5 boards per contest. He and forward Drew Gooden are the only two Cavaliers’ starters to play in every game this season.

The nine-year veteran gives much of the credit for his physical resurgence simply on his off-season regimen, which he changed up for the first time in his career.

“After the Finals, I went to Europe and stayed in France for around three months,” said Z. “I didn’t touch a basketball. I did a lot of running outside on the hills, joined a local gym there and lifted weights. Came back home in September and started playing basketball. More than anything, I felt fresh.

“I wasn’t shooting well when I came back, but I was in great shape,” he continued. “Usually I stay in Cleveland. But I think it was good just to get away. More than anything, I came back mentally fresh.”

As good as his numbers have been over the course of the 2007-08 season – the Cavaliers’ man in the middle was simply en fuego over his last two home outings – averaging 22.5 points on .760 shooting, with 8.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. (Of course, a huge reason for the eye-popping recent field goal percentage is a result of his perfect 10-for-10 performance in Wednesday’s blowout over Washington. He became the first Cavalier since 1973 to achieve that feat.)

Ilgauskas journey to this point has been well-chronicled, and it is one of the league’s most inspirational.

Foot injuries – and the surgeries that followed – took their toll on the early stages of Ilgauskas’ career. He went under the knife before he ever played an NBA game, but his first year in the league was full of promise. He was the MVP of the Rookie Challenge at the 1997 All-Star Weekend in New York and battled Rik Smits and the Pacers in the Playoffs later that year.

Yet the foot problems continued and Ilgauskas almost succumbed to them. He bounced back to play in 62 games in 2001-02, played in 81 games the following year and secured his first All-Star bid, despite the Cavaliers’ woeful 17-win season. In 2003-04, however, that painful season – and all the ones preceding it – paid off in the person of LeBron James, whose aforementioned leap of faith last June brought the Large Lithuanian full circle.

This year – as the Cavaliers durable duo try to replicate that feat – the newly-shorn Ilgauskas has returned as one of the team’s pillars. He is among the Conference leaders in rebounding, field goal percentage and free throw percentage and he and No. 23 have been working the pick-and-pop to perfection. And the Cavaliers, as a team, are that much better.

“The season moves so fast, and we’ve had contract disputes and injuries and we hadn’t had a chance to be together as a team,” he added. “So this is probably the first time we have everybody healthy and available. And when we have that and play the right way, we’re a pretty good team.”

Working with an improved Anderson Varejao, the Cavaliers are also able to effectively go big to close games – as they in last Monday’s win in Miami. The two are more than just inseparable road dogs, they are a potent one-two punch in the post.

“(Anderson)’s easy to play with because of what he gives you defensively,” said Z. “He gives his energy, he rebounds and he does all the little things. A center and power forward have to feed off each other and he makes it a lot easier for me.”

In the Wild Thing’s case, it’s hard to measure his effectiveness by just the numbers. That’s true in Z’s case to some extent, as well. Numbers can’t measure how he alters shots around the basket or how he prevents opponents from doubling LeBron.

And the soft-spoken, no-nonsense Ilgauskas isn’t a numbers guy anyway. There is only one that will matter to him as his career moves forward – how many championships Cleveland will win while he’s here. The only number question to worry about after that is when No. 11 will be lifted into the rafters at The Q when he’s done.

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