Cavaliers exact revenge on Wizards with 113-87 win

And just like that, the Cleveland Cavaliers are on a winning streak.

After managing just 78 points on the Washington Wizards' home floor this past Friday - in the midst of a four-game losing streak - the Cavs got even in Cleveland on Wednesday, demolishing the Wizards 113-87.

It's Cleveland's second straight blowout win, after shredding Orlando on Monday, and it evens their record at 7-7.

The Wizards and Cavs have long had a testy relationship, dating back to LeBron James' first go-around in Cleveland and the Gilbert Arenas era in Washington. Those tensions, sparked anew by the preseason debate about which team boasted the NBA's best backcourt, have carried over.

Dueling shooting guards Dion Waiters and Bradley Beal got into it in the second quarter, and in the third it was Cavs forward Tristan Thompson exchanging pleasantries with Wizards point guard John Wall.

Wall got the best of Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving the last time the teams met, dropping 28 points and dishing seven assists. Before Wednesday's game, Irving vowed to be better defensively.

“It’s just more or less a personal challenge," he said. "It takes a team effort to guard everybody and for me, I’m either on the one or the two. We just have to figure that out. … I told them that whenever I have a chance to guard the point guards, just leave me on him and we have our two guards guard the twos. I just have to do the job at stopping the head of the snake."

Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. Irving held Wall to just six points on 2-of-6 shooting, while helping to force him into five turnovers.

At the other end, it was LeBron James and Kevin Love pacing the Cavs. James had one of his best games of the season, scoring 29 points on just 14 shots, adding 10 boards, eight assists and three steals.

Love, who finally looks like he's starting to find himself in Cleveland's offense, notched 21 on 7-of-10 shooting, and had a game-best plus-25 rating in just 29 minutes.

Rasual Butler led Washington with 23 points, and when Rasual Butler leads your team in scoring, it's probably not your night.

The Wiz will have a long time to stew on this one. These teams won't see each other again until they play in Washington on Feb. 20, on national television.