Atlanta Hawks (17-7) at Cleveland Cavaliers (14-9), 7 p.m. (ET)
(SportsNetwork.com) - Two of the Eastern Conference's top teams tangle Wednesday night when the Cleveland Cavaliers welcome the Atlanta Hawks to Quicken Loans Arena.
The Hawks sit third in the East, while the Cavs are fifth. Both squads come into Wednesday's tilt after victories their last time out.
The Cavs snapped a two-game losing streak Monday night with a nine-point victory over the Charlotte Hornets. Both of those losses came on the road and Cleveland has won six straight as the host.
On Monday, LeBron James and Kevin Love each delivered monster efforts to get the Cavaliers back on track via a 97-88 victory over the Hornets.
Back home after being dealt back-to-back defeats at Oklahoma City and New Orleans, the Cavaliers raced out to a 21-0 lead and held on the rest of the way. James came through with 27 points and 13 assists to lead the charge, with Love pulling down 18 rebounds in addition to a 22-point performance.
"Having a chance to be home a bit and recharge our batteries certainly helped tonight," said Cavaliers head coach David Blatt.
Kyrie Irving added 16 points to help Cleveland drop the Hornets to 1-10 on the road.
During this six-game home winning streak, the Cavs have won by an average of 14.3 points. The win was Cleveland's ninth straight against an Eastern Conference team and improved the Cavs to 12-3 versus the East this season.
Cleveland knocked off the Hawks by 33 points at the Q on Nov. 15. At that time. Atlanta was floundering a bit, but two weeks after the humbling thrashing, the Hawks nine straight.
That streak was halted on Saturday in Orlando, but Atlanta got back into the win column on Monday with a 93-86 home victory over the Chicago Bulls.
Al Horford totaled 21 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Hawks as they picked up their first win over the Bulls in nearly two years.
Paul Millsap chipped in 17 points while Jeff Teague added 12 with seven assists for the Hawks, who had dropped six straight against the Bulls since besting them on Dec. 22, 2012.
Atlanta bounced back from the Orlando loss by forcing 16 turnovers and holding the Bulls to 37.6 percent shooting.
"(Chicago) is the type of team where you can't really get behind on, so I felt like our energy was great in the beginning," Horford said.
Wednesday's contest is the start of a brutal three-game road trip for the Hawks. They'll visit the Houston Rockets on Saturday, then the Dallas Mavericks on Monday.
For the Cavs, Wednesday will be game two of a five-game homestand which will see the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves head to Cleveland.
The Cavs' victory over the Hawks earlier this season snapped a four-game series losing streak. Atlanta is 5-2 in its last seven at the Q.