• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Cavs clobber Wizards

Feb 21, 2015 - 6:01 AM Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - LeBron James scored 28 points and Kyrie Irving added 25 with seven assists, as the Cleveland Cavaliers started the unofficial second half of the season with a 127-89 rout of the Washington Wizards.

The Cavs dropped a 113-98 decision at Chicago on Feb. 12, but have managed to win 15 of their last 17 contests.

J.R. Smith added 15 points and Iman Shumpert scored 12 for the Cavs, who received 10 points from James Jones.

Long-distance shooting was the difference in this one. Cleveland went 14- of-33, while Washington ended 1-of-16.

The Wizards, losers in seven of their last nine games, received 18 points and nine assists from John Wall. Nene also had 18 points, but he left the game in the third quarter with what was termed a cramp. He limped off the court after his right knee collided with Cleveland's Timofey Mozgov.

Wall's layup started the game's scoring, but the Cavaliers put in the next eight points, capped by a pair of James buckets. That included an alley-oop jam off a feed from Irving, and a driving layup.

"I'm the leader of this team. I set the tempo, I set the pace," James said. "I set the aggressiveness. I just wanted the guys to follow me. We all have to do our job. We did that tonight."

The Cavs led the remainder of the night. James scored 10 in the opening period, after which the visitors held a 35-26 edge.

James came up with a steal, which led to a one-handed slam for a 39-26 difference, and Shumpert buried consecutive 3-pointers for a 47-28 cushion. Mozgov's layup made it 49-28 less than four minutes into the second to cap a 10-0 burst.

Irving converted an acrobatic reverse layup, driving past Wall for a 58-37 difference, and the Cavs carried a 65-51 lead into the half.

James scored 13 during the third to help Cleveland to a 94-71 lead after 36 minutes. With the Cavs in command, James sat out the final quarter.

"We've got to get back to working hard, putting more time in," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. "I've got guys complaining about playing time all the time. Well, here it is, what are you going to do with it?"

Game Notes

Washington guard Bradley Beal (mild stress reaction right leg) missed his fourth straight game, while teammate Kevin Seraphin (flu) also sat out ... The Cavs hold a 2-1 lead in the season series and have captured seven of the last 10 versus the Wizards. The two teams will meet again April 15 in Cleveland to close the regular season ... The Cavs have won 13 straight games when hitting the century mark in scoring ... Ramon Sessions, who was acquired by the Wizards from Sacramento on Thursday, played six minutes and was held scoreless ... The 38-point win was one shy of Cleveland's largest margin of victory in the series (131-92, Nov. 10, 1992) ... The Cavs scored 33 points off 18 Washington turnovers ... Kevin Love was limited to eight points and six rebounds for the Cavs.