NBA Game Summary - Cleveland at Washington

Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - LeBron James scored 28 points and Kyrie Irving added 25 with seven assists, as the Cleveland Cavaliers started the unofficial second half of the season with a 127-89 rout of the Washington Wizards.

The Cavs dropped a 113-98 decision at Chicago on Feb. 12, but have managed to win 15 of their last 17 contests.

J.R. Smith added 15 points and Iman Shumpert scored 12 for the Cavs, who received 10 points from James Jones.

Long-distance shooting was the difference in this one. Cleveland went 14- of-33, while Washington ended 1-of-16.

The Wizards, losers in seven of their last nine games, received 18 points and nine assists from John Wall. Nene also had 18 points, but he left the game in the third quarter with what was termed a cramp. He limped off the court after his right knee collided with Cleveland's Timofey Mozgov.

Wall's layup started the game's scoring, but the Cavaliers put in the next eight points, capped by a pair of James buckets. That included an alley-oop jam off a feed from Irving, and a driving layup.

"I'm the leader of this team. I set the tempo, I set the pace," James said. "I set the aggressiveness. I just wanted the guys to follow me. We all have to do our job. We did that tonight."

The Cavs led the remainder of the night. James scored 10 in the opening period, after which the visitors held a 35-26 edge.

James came up with a steal, which led to a one-handed slam for a 39-26 difference, and Shumpert buried consecutive 3-pointers for a 47-28 cushion. Mozgov's layup made it 49-28 less than four minutes into the second to cap a 10-0 burst.

Irving converted an acrobatic reverse layup, driving past Wall for a 58-37 difference, and the Cavs carried a 65-51 lead into the half.

James scored 13 during the third to help Cleveland to a 94-71 lead after 36 minutes. With the Cavs in command, James sat out the final quarter.

"We've got to get back to working hard, putting more time in," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. "I've got guys complaining about playing time all the time. Well, here it is, what are you going to do with it?"