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James, Cavs look to keep streaking vs. Hawks

Dec 13, 2008 - 11:27 AM Cleveland (20-3) at Atlanta (13-9) 7:00 p.m. EST

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- LeBron James keeps spending most of his nights on the bench ... because the Cleveland Cavaliers keep dominating the opposition.

James will be looking to spend another second half on the sidelines when the Cavaliers face the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.

Cleveland has won 11 games in a row and has done so in such a convincing fashion that James has only needed to play an average of 31 minutes over that span. The Cavaliers lead the NBA in point-differential, beating the opposition by an average of 13.4 points per game.

The fourth-quarter leads have allowed James to relax at the end of games, hopefully keeping him fresh for the end of the season.

James collected 28 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in 37 minutes on Friday as Cleveland posted an 88-72 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Cavaliers are still without starting center Zydrunas Ilgauskas (ankle) and sixth man Daniel Gibson (toe), providing the only downside to the team's recent surge.

The Hawks are coming off a win, too, snapping a three-game slide with an 88-73 triumph at Miami. Joe Johnson led the way with 21 points and Mike Bibby and Josh Smith added 15 apiece.

Johnson has scored at least 21 points in five of the last six games and leads Atlanta with an average of 23.2 points per contest.