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Cavaliers searching for win without James

Dec 5, 2007 - 3:45 PM Cleveland (9-10) at Washington (8-9) 7:00 pm EST

WASHINGTON (Ticker) - The Cleveland Cavaliers look for their first win without their injured superstar when they visit the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.

The Cavaliers have lost three straight games without LeBron James in the lineup. James is recovering from a sprained left index finger which he suffered in the first half of last Wednesday's loss against the Detroit Pistons when he was fouled by Nazr Mohammed.

James is the NBA's leading scoring, averaging 30.7 points per game while contributing 8.1 assists and 7.6 rebounds.

Cleveland has looked out of sync without its All-Star forward, suffering all three losses by at least nine points while scoring only 76.3 points.

The Wizards have had much more success than the Cavaliers without their injured superstar, Gilbert Arenas, who will miss the next three months after having knee surgery.

Washington is 5-4 without Arenas in the lineup and snapped a two-game losing streak during its last game on Saturday.

Caron Butler scored 29 points and Antawn Jamison added 28 and 14 rebounds en route to a 101-97 victory over the Toronto Raptors.