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Cavaliers attempt to continue recent surge

Jan 8, 2008 - 2:19 PM Seattle (9-24) at Cleveland (17-17) 7:00 pm EST

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - The Cleveland Cavaliers will attempt to climb over the break-even mark for the first time in over a month when they host the Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday.

The Cavaliers, winners of five of their last six contests, got their usual extraordinary contribution from LeBron James, who scored 24 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 93-90 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

With the win, Cleveland approached the .500 mark for the first time since it was 9-9 on December 2.

The defending Eastern Conference champions are 17-12 this season with the No. 1 overall pick from the 2003 draft in uniform, but winless in five tries without him.

The Sonics have their own highly-drafted superstar, Kevin Durant, who was drafted No. 2 overall in the most recent draft last June. The 6-9 guard-forward leads all rookies with 19.9 points per game, but he hasn't been able to help his team avoid dropping five of their last six games.

Durant had 19 points in Sunday's 108-86 loss to the Washington Wizards, but missed 14 of his 21 field-goal attempts.