Cleveland @ Washington preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 8, 2017 ) Cleveland 94, Washington 102

All the practices and team meetings don't seem to be helping much on the court for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are losers of four in a row. The Cavaliers, who dropped those four games by an average of 15.8 points, will try to bounce back and keep this close when they visit the Washington Wizards on Friday.

Cleveland reportedly held a team meeting on Tuesday after a Halloween party thrown by LeBron James the night before, but it still went out and dropped a 124-107 decision at home to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. "We have an opportunity to be very good and then you see some of the lulls that we have and it's just difficult on our team right now," James told reporters. "We're just trying to figure it out on the fly." The Wizards thought they would have a chance to play the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals last spring before falling to the Boston Celtics in seven games in the semifinals, and they are going through some bumps in the road early in 2017-18 as well. Washington suffered a letdown in the first game home after a four-game west coast swing with a 122-116 loss to Phoenix but has a chance to right itself with five of the next six in its own arena.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN, FS Ohio (Cleveland)

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (3-5): Cleveland allowed at least 112 points in each of its last six games and served up a season-high 124 to the Pacers, who shot 54.4 percent from the floor, but coach Tyronn Lue is looking for positives. "I thought we did some good things," Lue told reporters. "We just couldn't sustain it. But the other games we just flat got our butts kicked, so, seeing improvement. Just have to keep plugging, keep working." The Cavaliers are struggling to defend the 3-point line and allowed Indiana to go 16-of-26 from beyond the arc, dropping them to last in the NBA in 3-point field-goal defense (.418).

ABOUT THE WIZARDS (4-3): Washington isn't coming off its best defensive performance of the season either after surrendering 70 second-half points in the loss to the Suns, marking its third defeat in the last four games. The positive to come out of the setback was that shooting guard Bradley Beal managed to find his stroke from long range, knocking down 6-of-12 3-pointers en route to a season-high 40 points. Beal, who is averaging 22.4 points, was just 6-of-24 from beyond the arc in the first six games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Cavaliers C Tristan Thompson suffered a left calf strain on Wednesday and will reportedly miss a month of action.

2. Wizards PF Markieff Morris (abdomen) is expected to make his season debut on Friday.

3. Cleveland took two of the three meetings last season, including a pair of wins at Washington.

PREDICTION: Cavaliers 125, Wizards 119