Trail Blazers at Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers will try to maintain their home dominance when they continue a three-game stay at Quicken Loans Arena with a matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. After topping the Eastern Conference with 33 home wins a season ago, the Cavaliers have raced out to a 7-1 mark in 2016-17, including a 104-81 rout of Detroit on Friday to open the homestand.
The easy win came at a nice time for Cleveland, which was afforded a four-day break between games and should be well-rested for the Blazers. "(Forward Channing Frye) asked for it before the game," LeBron James said of the team's need for a win before the time off. "He looked at me before the game and said we need to get a big win so we can get some rest. It's a great point in the schedule for us right now; we don't play till Wednesday." While the Cavaliers have been resting up, the Blazers will be playing their fifth game in seven days - all on the road - including Tuesday's 107-103 loss at the New York Knicks. Portland is 1-3 during that stretch so far.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), FSN Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (8-8): One saving grace for Portland's busy schedule was that its last two games were in New York City with a day off in between. "It's actually nice not to have to travel for that extra game," Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "It makes the road trip a little more tolerable, but to be able to stay in New York four days is pretty nice." After routing the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, the Blazers nearly had the Big Apple sweep before going cold down the stretch versus the Knicks and getting only two free throws from Damian Lillard (team-high 22 points) in the final three-plus minutes.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (10-2): Cleveland is fully healthy now that long-range specialist J.R. Smith is back from a sprained ankle that had caused him to miss three games. Smith and Kyrie Irving (team-high 25 points) each hit three 3-pointers in the win over the Pistons as the Cavaliers recorded their NBA-record 12th straight game with at least 10 makes from behind the arc to start the season. Irving also had 11 assists against zero turnovers in the win and he is shooting 57.4 percent in the last three games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Portland has won eight of the last 11 meetings and delivered a 105-76 victory in the most recent contest on Dec. 26, 2015 at home.
2. Cavaliers F Kevin Love has registered seven straight double-doubles.
3. Lillard is shooting 27.9 percent from 3-point distance on the road.