Cavaliers eye series sweep of Magic
Cleveland (36-26) at Orlando (20-40) 7:00 pm EST
ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- On their second stop of a four-game road trip, the Cleveland Cavaliers can post a season series sweep of their second consecutive opponent when they face the Orlando Magic on Friday.
The Cavaliers earned a perfect mark against Toronto this season with a thrilling 98-97 victory Wednesday, thanks to a clutch performance of Damon Jones. The 6-3 guard buried the game-winning 3-pointer from the corner as time expired to push Cleveland's winning streak to four games.
LeBron James, who handed out his sixth assist to Jones, had 35 points to lead all scorers. Jones, who sat on the bench for much of the final period, scored just eight points and Ronald Murray finished with 14.
With a win on Friday, the Cavaliers can improve to 4-0 this season vs. the Magic and complete a sweep of another Eastern Conference opponent in a three-day span.
Orlando will try and make the visitors' task as difficult as possible since it yearns to stop a six-game slide.
The Magic suffered a 90-85 setback to Utah on Monday which capped an 0-5 trip. Orlando failed to take advantage of Utah's 12-point fourth quarter effort because of the hosts' stingy defense in the closing moments of the game.
Dwight Howard collected 18 points and 14 rebounds and DeShawn Stevenson and Carlos Arroyo had 14 points each.
In three meetings with the Magic, the Cavaliers' average margin of victory has been 13 points. Behind a 26-point contribution from James and 24 from Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland defeated Orlando, 105-92 on February 21 for the sixth straight time.
