Basketball Game Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Birmingham Patriots

Cleveland is 1-9 against Birmingham since February of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Cleveland Cavaliers will host the Birmingham Patriots at 6:00 p.m. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Cleveland comes in on 15 and Birmingham on three.

On Wednesday, Cleveland earned a 67-59 win over Granada Hills Charter. Given the Cavaliers' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 128th, while the Highlanders are ranked 361st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Birmingham beat Taft 77-68 on Wednesday.

Birmingham has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine contests, which provided a massive bump to their 14-9 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 75.3 points per game. As for Cleveland, they pushed their record up to 20-4 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road.

Cleveland beat Birmingham 63-52 in their previous matchup back in January of 2024. Will Cleveland repeat their success, or does Birmingham have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.