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Cavaliers invade Madison Square Garden

Feb 22, 2015 - 3:38 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Cleveland Cavaliers look to build on an impressive win their last time out when they resume a four-game road trip Sunday against the lowly New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Sunday's game has lost some appeal with Knicks' superstar Carmelo Anthony finished for the season after undergoing successful knee surgery.

The Cavaliers blasted the Washington Wizards, 127-89, Friday night at the Verizon Center and LeBron James made 12-of-21 shots en route to 28 points in just 25 minutes of action. Kyrie Irving scored 25 points, J.R. Smith had 15 and Iman Shumpert produced 12 off the bench.

Cleveland shot 51.1 percent, led 35-26 after the first quarter and had a 65-51 halftime advantage. It led by double figures the rest of the way and the 38- point win was the Cavs' biggest against the Wizards. Washington was held to just 1-of-16 beyond the arc and gave up 33 points on 18 turnovers.

"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 have won 13 straight games when hitting the century mark in scoring and are 15-2 in the past 17 games. They improved to 13-13 on the road.

James (24,365) is four points shy of passing 76ers legend Allen Iverson (24,368) for 22nd on the NBA's all-time scoring list. He needs 12 more assists for the most by a forward in league lore. James has scored at least 25 points in each of his last 11 road games.

Cavs forward Kevin Love needs two rebounds for 5,000 in his career.

Cleveland will close the trek Tuesday against Detroit.

The Knicks are mired in a six-game slide and suffered a 111-87 setback to the Miami Heat Friday night.

Langston Galloway led New York with 19 points, Tim Hardaway, Jr. scored 17 off the bench and both Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani added 11 points. The Knicks shot 42.7 percent for the game and were outrebounded, 50-32.

"Whoever steps on the floor has to try to help out ... We didn't play hard enough tonight," Galloway said.

New York is winless in the last three home games and has a 7-20 record at Madison Square Garden this season.

After hosting the Cavs, the Knicks will visit Boston and Detroit. New York and Cleveland have split two meetings this season, but the Cavaliers have prevailed in eight of the previous 12 encounters.

Irving has scored at least 20 points in 10 straight games against the Knicks, averaging 26.7 points per game in that stretch.