updated 10:16 p.m. ET Jan. 2, 2009

CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t about to follow one big loss with another one.

Anderson Varejao scored a career-high 26 points — the majority of them off passes from LeBron James — and James had a triple-double as the Cavaliers stayed unbeaten on their floor with a 117-92 win Friday night over the Chicago Bulls after learning center Zydrunas Ilgauskas will miss a month with a fractured bone in his left ankle.

James finished with 16 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to help the Cavaliers improve to 17-0 at home.

More importantly, Cleveland, coming off a lackluster loss at Miami and three straight sub-par efforts, were sharp in their first game without Ilgauskas.

“It’s going to be tough,” James said. “Guys have to pick it up. We’ve got a veteran ballclub and we’ve got enough guys who can come off the bench and really play. We’re going to see who can step up.”

Everyone wearing wine and gold stepped up in the first game of the new year.

Ben Wallace scored a season-high 13, and rookie J.J. Hickson and reserve Sasha Pavlovic had 13 apiece. Delonte West added 14, and Mo Williams had 11 as Cleveland placed seven in double figures to offset the loss of Ilgauskas.

“They’re still really good,” Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. “You have to put so much attention on LeBron. There’s probably nothing he hasn’t seen. When you double team him, he’s such a good passer, he gets everyone else involved. They have a lot of weapons. Varejao and Wallace hurt us a lot.”

James scored 41 points in each of Cleveland’s first two wins over Chicago this season, but the superstar was content to defer to others for most of the night. He didn’t make his second field goal — a 3-pointer — until there was just 5:58 left. He grabbed rebound seconds later, brought them ball up the floor and drilled his second 3-pointer in a 16-second span to make it 104-80.

It was James’ first triple-double this season and the 18th of his career.

He could get a few more in the coming weeks while Ilgauskas recovers. January is a rugged month for the Cavs, who will play some of the league’s best teams in the weeks ahead.

“This month will show how good we are and to have our big man out, it’s going to be tough,” James said. “We have the West Coast swing, we have Boston and New Orleans coming in. This was the month that we were looking forward to see how we stack up against these teams.”

Ben Gordon scored 22 points, and Lindsey Hunter 13 for the Bulls, who shot just 37 percent and have lost five of six. During a heated timeout in the third quarter, Joakim Noah and Andres Nocioni exchanged words on the bench.

“When you’re losing by 20 points, you’re frustrated,” Noah said. “It’s the heat of the moment, things are said. But I don’t have any problems with him (Nocioni). Losing is frustrating.”

Ilgauskas first rolled his ankle trying to block a shot during a Dec. 10 game at Philadelphia. He missed just three games and medical tests taken at the time showed nothing more than a sprain. However, the 7-foot-3 Lithuanian whose left foot was surgically rebuilt eight years ago, continued to have soreness and swelling.

A second round of X-rays and an MRI revealed he fractured a bone in the back of his ankle.

He’ll be in a walking boot for a week.

“One thing we don’t want to do is rush it,” Ilgauskas said. “We’ll take it weekly and see how it goes — we really don’t know.”

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