Cavaliers at Wizards
The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to react to each of their rare losses in a similar manner – bemoaning the mental mistakes and hanging their heads. The Cavaliers will try to reduce those mental errors and avoid back-to-back losses when they visit the Washington Wizards on Sunday.
The Cavaliers held a nine-point lead with under five minutes to play at Toronto on Friday before suffering a 99-97 loss, with LeBron James missing the rim on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer. "When you lose the way we lost, just mental mistake after mental mistake, those hurt more than anything when you can play better mentally," James told reporters. "People get so caught up in the physical thing. We lack mental right now. And we got to continue to get better with it." The Wizards are trying to claw their way back to .500 and into postseason competition, and they split a two-game road trip by beating the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday. Washington has won four of six since the All-Star break and is back home for two straight before heading back out for a stretch of five of six away.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, FSN Ohio (Cleveland), CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington)
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (41-16): Cleveland still sits in first place in the Eastern Conference but had its lead clipped to two games over Toronto with Friday’s loss. The Cavaliers allowed the Raptors to shoot 50.7 percent from the floor and had no answer for All-Star Kyle Lowry, who was on fire late and finished with a career-high 43 points. “They just did all the right things when they needed to and we knew it was going to be a tough game for us,” Cavaliers forward Kevin Love told reporters. “It came down to the wire; we just couldn’t get over the hump."
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (27-30): Washington’s problems are on the defensive end, and the team locked down in the second half by holding the 76ers to 42 points after the break on Friday. “We got to defend, man, it’s as simple as that,” Wizards point guard John Wall told reporters. “When we defend, we’re perfectly fine.” The results are backing up Wall’s claim, and the Wizards have allowed 94 points or fewer in each of the four wins since the break while surrendering an average of 111.5 in the two setbacks.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cavaliers G Mo Williams (knee) sat out Friday and will not play on Sunday.
2. Wizards G Bradley Beal is 1-of-12 from 3-point range in the last two games.
3. Cleveland earned a 121-115 win in Washington on Jan. 6 behind 34 points and 10 rebounds from James.