Cavaliers at Heat
LeBron James makes his second visit to Miami this season and hopes to leave with a win this time when the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Heat on Monday. James spent four seasons with Miami and won two championships before rejoining the Cavaliers, and his first trip back to South Beach was a 101-91 loss on Christmas Day. Cleveland has won four straight games and is in second place by three games in the Eastern Conference after posting a 123-108 victory over the Orlando Magic on Sunday.
Miami guard Dwyane Wade is well aware it is a big deal for James to get a victory this time around after failing in December’s highly anticipated game. “Wherever LeBron goes, the attention goes with him,” Wade told reporters of James, who tweaked his right knee during the win over Orlando. “The excitement of beating his teams is always going to be there. So yeah, it will be a great environment again.” The Heat are tied for ninth place in the East, a half-game behind the Charlotte Hornets, as part of a pack that includes four teams.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSN Ohio (Cleveland), Sun Sports (Miami)
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (43-25): Point guard Kyrie Irving was at it again in the victory over Orlando as he scored 33 points and went 5-of-6 from 3-point range. Irving scored a career-best 57 points – the most in the NBA this season – in Thursday’s overtime win over San Antonio and was able to produce a good follow-up performance. “Someone did ask me, ‘What do you do for an encore for that?’ and I didn’t have a good answer,” Cleveland coach David Blatt told reporters. “But 12-for-15 from the field, 33 points in 34 minutes, that’s a pretty good encore.”
ABOUT THE HEAT (29-36): Point guard Goran Dragic may be a recent addition to Miami but he has grown frustrated by the team’s up-and-down nature. “We needed to come out and show we can play against (good) teams,” Dragic told reporters. “It’s kind of hot and cold. We win one, we lose one. We need to be more consistent.” Dragic is averaging 16.4 points and 4.9 assists in 10 games since being acquired from the Phoenix Suns.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Cavaliers have dropped their last eight visits to Miami.
2. Irving is 12-of-13 from 3-point range over the past two games.
3. The Heat have limited opponents to 28.6 percent from 3-point range over the second half of the last six games.