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Irving leads Cavs into Orlando

Mar 15, 2015 - 2:31 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Cleveland Cavaliers will take their three-game winning streak into the Amway Center on Sunday night to battle the Orlando Magic.

The Cavs are 9-3 in their last 12 and ascended to second in the Eastern Conference. They own a two-game lead over the Chicago Bulls for Central Division supremacy and have won two straight on the road.

Cleveland opened this four-game trek through the south with a 33-point drubbing of the Dallas Mavericks, then followed with a thrilling, three-point victory over the world champion San Antonio Spurs on Thursday.

Kyrie Irving scored a Cleveland Cavaliers franchise-record 57 points in a super-human effort.

Irving scored Cleveland's last nine points of regulation, including a game- tying 3-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer. He then added 11 points in the extra session to help the Cavs snap a 10-game losing streak against the Spurs.

It was also Cleveland's 23rd win over its last 28 games.

"It was a high level game. Two very good teams going at it in a playoff manner with toughness and aggressiveness and great basketball on both sides of the ball. It was good, clean, hard fun," Cavaliers coach David Blatt said.

Irving, who netted a previous career-high of 55 points less than two months ago against the Portland Trail Blazers, knocked down all seven of his shots from beyond the arc, was a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line and finished 20-of-32 from the field.

One of those fallaway 3s came with 31 seconds in regulation to claw Cleveland within 110-107. Kawhi Leonard was fouled after coming down with an offensive rebound at the other end, but missed both free throws with 4.3 ticks on the clock.

That left the door wide open for Irving.

He received the inbound at the top of the arc, took a few dribbles to his right and rose over Tony Parker and Leonard before knocking down the game- tying 3-pointer.

"Kyrie Irving was unstoppable. I don't know how to guard that," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

LeBron James was no slouch on Thursday with 31 points, seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and a block. Tristan Thompson chipped in 12 off the bench and Timofey Mozgov added 10.

The Cavs close the road trip with an emotional stop in Miami on Monday. James took the Heat to four trips to the NBA Finals during his stint in South Beach.

The Magic dropped three in a row, all on the road, but have won two straight at home.

On Friday, the Magic blew an eight-point lead with seven minutes to go en route to a 95-88 loss to the Boston Celtics. Evan Turner scored 16 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to lead Boston.

Elfrid Payton scored 20 with nine assists for Orlando. Tobias Harris and Nik Vucevic each had 16 points with Vucevic adding 11 boards.

"It's frustrating. We played well for the most part. We competed out there, but they made some big plays at the end of the game," Vucevic said.

Vucevic's jam tied the game at 85 with 2:06 left, but Turner then nailed the go-ahead jumper. He tacked on another short jumper for a four-point lead. Brandon Bass blocked an attempt from Victor Oladipo at the other end, and Bass sent home a two-handed dunk with 53 seconds left to effectively seal the outcome.

The Cavs have owned this matchup in recent history, winning nine straight. Cleveland has taken four straight in Orlando.