BOSTON: It seems every few months or so, LeBron James sets some sort of record or passes some benchmark, even though he's just two months past his 23rd birthday.

This one, though, seems to carry a little extra significance because of the number: 10,000.

Wednesday, James became the youngest player to reach 10,000 career points at 23 years and 59 days, beating out Kobe Bryant by about a year. He is the ninth-fastest player in NBA history to reach 10,000, doing it in 368 games. By comparison, Michael Jordan did it in 303 games, Wilt Chamberlain in 236 and the NBA's all-time leading scorer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, did it in 313.

''I care about it, because I've put in hard work every summer to be one of the best,'' James said. ''But I don't think about it. When the feat happens, then it's great.''

James is now fewer than 400 points away from overtaking Brad Daugherty as the Cavaliers' all-time leading scorer and fewer than 300 away from passing Austin Carr for second place. He's also on pace to win his first-ever NBA scoring title. He has a 2.5-point-per-game lead on Bryant.

James likes to say he doesn't pay attention to individual accolades, but he actually does because he has a strong sense of history. He certainly doesn't let on that the milestones affect him, but he admitted he's surpassed his childhood dreams at this point.

''I just wanted to be in the NBA. I never thought about leading a team, leading a franchise,'' James said. ''Not like who I am now.''

In the locker room

• Zydrunas Ilgauskas returned to the starting lineup against the Boston Celtics after missing Tuesday's game with an upper respiratory infection. He was still not 100 percent and was recovering after losing eight pounds on Monday and Tuesday.

• Hearing the words ''broken tarsal navicular bone'' chills Ilgauskas. It is one of the bones in his feet that he repeatedly had trouble with and cost him the better part of three seasons early in his career. That is the injury Houston Rockets center Yao Ming suffered, knocking him out for the season.

''I feel shocked and bad. He's been playing so well,'' Ilgauskas said. ''He might have gotten worn down. When he played against us after the All-Star break, he looked tired and those injuries sometimes come from overuse and sometimes they just happen.''

Ilgauskas said the Rockets' team doctor, Tom Clanton, is one of the best specialists in the country and he consulted with him before having the operation that changed his career seven years ago.

''He is in good hands,'' Ilgauskas said.

• It was a late night for the Cavs on Tuesday. Delays de-icing their plane in Milwaukee and the hour time change not in their favor didn't allow them to reach Boston until after 4 a.m. The Cavs lead the Eastern Conference in back-to-back games in which they play the second night on the road. Over the course of the next three weeks, they have three sets of back-to-back games, all on the road.