James scored 11 straight points late in the fourth quarter to break open a tight game and lead the Cavs to a 97-85 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night in Bradley Center.

"The thing I liked the most about LeBron was as the game went along, he got more and more aggressive," Cavs coach Mike Brown said after his team won its fifth straight game to improve to 14-3. "He started attacking and that sent the tone for everybody else. Everybody else responded to that."

James finished with 32 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter. Zydrunas Ilgauskas added season highs in points (23) and rebounds (17). Ilgauskas had four rebounds in the defining quarter as well.

The Bucks had rallied from a 16-point deficit in the third quarter and were within 82-79 with 5:26 left when James went to work. He hit a driving layup, then made two free throws. He followed with another driving layup and a 3-pointer before closing out his run with a 21-footer. By the time he was done, the Cavs were ahead, 93-81, and the Bucks were done.

"I had to be aggressive," James said. "Our outside shots weren't falling tonight. I took it upon myself to get into the lane and create for myself and create for others."

Michael Redd, back in the lineup after missing 14 games with a sprained right ankle, had 20 points for the Bucks, who lost their fourth straight to fall to 7-12.

When the Cavs scored the first six points of the second half to build that 16-point lead, it didn't look as if the short-handed Bucks were going to put up much of a fight. But they overcame their rash of injuries and fought the Cavs almost to the finish.

The one guy they couldn't contain was James.

"We tried three or four different coverages on him, and like all the great players do, he has a really good sense of timing of when to take over," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. "In both games that we have played against him, we have struggled to contain him in any meaningful way. He's a great player."

With the result, the Cavs had a record of 13-2 in November, tying their record for wins in a month. They also recorded their best winning percentage for the month of November (.867) and tied their second-best winning percentage for any month. (Their best month ever was February in 1993, when they went 12-1 for a 92.3 winning percentage.)

As they have throughout this amazing stretch that has seen them win 13 of their past 14 games, the Cavs just found a way to win.

"We stuck with it," said Brown, who pointed out a key contribution from Sasha Pavlovic - who hit two big 3-pointers and played some good defense on Redd. "We could have folded at any time during the course of the game. On the road, we could have given a ton of excuses - fourth game in five nights, things just weren't going our way shooting the ball.

"The thing I like about this team is I like our depth. Tonight it showed."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mschmitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4668