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Cavaliers look to take advantage of lowly Wizards

Jan 4, 2009 - 2:27 PM Cleveland (27-5) at Washington (6-25) 1:00 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The Cleveland Cavaliers are rolling through their schedule right now, and the Washington Wizards are unlikely to provide much of a bump in the road.

The Cavaliers will be looking for their 19th win in the last 21 games when they visit the lowly Wizards on Sunday.

LeBron James and company shook off a rare loss at Miami on Tuesday with a 117-92 pasting of the Chicago Bulls on Friday. Anderson Varejao led the way with 26 points as James recorded his 18th career triple-double with 16 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.

In addition to the transcendent offensive game of James, Cleveland has added suffocating defense to its repertoire this season, limiting opponents to an NBA-best 89.7 points per game. The Cavaliers have yielded over 100 points in a game just once since November 24.

The Wizards, who own the worst record in the Eastern Conference, are coming off a 108-83 loss on Friday to the only team in the East with a better record than Cleveland, the Boston Celtics. Nick Young and Antawn Jamison were the only Washington players to reach double figures in the contest.

One bright spot against the Celtics, however, was the return of All-Star Caron Butler, who had missed the previous three games with an ankle sprain.

Washington almost pulled out a win in the first meeting between the teams this season, holding an 89-82 lead with 1:39 left. But the Cavaliers scored 11 unanswered points in the final 1:32 to pull out a 93-89 win.

Cleveland has knocked the Wizards out of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.