It's taken two months for the Miami Heat to enjoy more success than they did all of last season, and with Dwyane Wade leading the way, they now have a chance to post their longest winning streak of the season.

However, there's a bigger streak standing in their way.

Wade and the Heat will try to prevent LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers from moving to 16-0 at Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday night, when the NBA's top two scorers and their teams open a home-and-home set.

Wade missed nearly half of Miami's disastrous 15-win season in 2007-08 while dealing with a variety of injuries, but with their superstar healthy, the Heat (16-12) have bounced back.

He's averaging an NBA-best 28.9 points, and has been even more dominant in helping Miami win its past four games. Wade has scored 34.5 points per game in that stretch, a streak of victories that started against the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 19 and continued on Friday, when he had 28 points in a 90-77 home win over Chicago.

With the game tied heading to the fourth quarter, the Heat outscored the Bulls 26-13 in the final 12 minutes, putting Miami past its dismal win total of last season after only 28 games.

"I thought it was a Miami-Heat-basketball-type win there in the fourth quarter," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "It's something we've been trying to build."

This is the Heat's second four-game win streak this month, but they haven't won five in a row since a nine-game run late in the 2006-07 season.

To do it, Miami would have to end the best home start in Cavaliers franchise history. Cleveland is the only team without a home loss this season.

The Cavaliers (25-4) have an average margin of victory of 12.8 points overall, often building leads so large in the first three quarters that James hasn't been needed for the fourth. The NBA's reigning scoring champ played 31 minutes or more in all but two of his 75 games last season, but he's already been under that mark seven times in 2008-09.

On Christmas night, though, Cleveland had to work four full quarters against woeful Washington. Down 89-82 with 1:40 to play, it looked like the Cavaliers were about to suffer their first home loss after 14 straight wins to open the season.

But James hit three free throws, Mo Williams made his fourth 3-pointer and Cleveland closed the game on an 11-0 run to win 93-89.

"The biggest thing is that we never lost our composure," said James, who finished with 18 points. "That's the only positive thing. ... When we were down seven and were able to make that run and to attack and to continue to get stops, it was a good win in that sense."

Along with James, Williams, acquired from Milwaukee over the summer, has keyed the Cavaliers' success. He's averaging 22.3 points in his last three games, including 9.3 in the fourth quarter.

The Heat don't need any additional reminder to pay close attention to Williams. In his final five games against Miami while with the Bucks, Williams averaged 27.8 points and 7.6 assists.

James and Wade have matched up 15 times since being drafted four picks apart in 2003. Wade has averaged 35.2 points in their last five head-to-head meetings - topping 40 three times - but Miami has lost four of those. James averaged 29.2 points in those games.

The Cavaliers have won three straight in the series, and five of six at home.