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The Cleveland Cavaliers have improved their playoff status over the last few games and will try to extend their season-high winning streak to four games tonight versus the Toronto Raptors.
The Cavaliers have taken out three Western Conference opponents in Denver, Oklahoma City and Houston, and sit just a half-game out of the final playoff spot in the East. In Sunday's 118-107 win over the Rockets, No. 1 draft pick Kyrie Irving scored 16 of his 21 points in the final stanza and Antawn Jamison added 28 points and five rebounds.
Ramon Sessions tallied 15 points and seven assists for the Cavs, who haven't won four in a row since an eight-game run from March 8-24, 2010.
"It was a great win," Cavs head coach Byron Scott said. "We got our confidence level back."
Cleveland is 9-12 at home this season. Jamison is averaging 25.4 points in his last seven games, while Irving is averaging 9.1 ppg in the fourth quarter over the past 17 games -- the most in the NBA during that stretch. He is posting a rookie-best 18.4 points this season.
The Cavs are only 8-17 against Eastern Conference foes in 2011-12 and have dropped four straight meetings with those teams.
Toronto will begin a five-game road trip tonight against the Cavs, Nets, Grizzlies, Bobcats and Knicks, and is 6-14 away from Air Canada Centre.
The Raptors suffered their fourth loss in six tries with Sunday's 105-99 defeat at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, as DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points to lead Toronto and Jerryd Bayless had 16.
"It seems like every game there's three possessions where the other team goes down the floor and comes up with a couple of threes and we fall behind," said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. "But I was happy with our intensity. It was better than last night."
Casey was referring to a 105-86 loss at Detroit on Saturday. Andrea Bargnani had 11 points in his second game back after missing 20 games with a calf injury. Bargnani, who had eight points against the Pistons, leads the Raptors with 21.7 ppg.
Toronto has beaten Cleveland twice already this season, but is 6-13 in the previous 19 matchups between the two clubs. The Raptors have dropped 13 of their last 17 trips to Quicken Loans Arena.
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