The defending 2015 Eastern Conference champion team Cleveland Cavaliers will be hosting the visiting Brooklyn Nets at the Quicken Loans Arena to finish out their season series on Thursday night and will be hoping to bounce back from a 106-100 home loss against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.

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The Cavaliers will also be avenging their sloppy 104-95 loss to the Nets in their last encounter at the Barclays Center, where the four-time MVP LeBron James was held scoreless in the final quarter.

In their recent game, the Cavs squandered a 13-point lead in the final 12 minutes and poorly shot 36 percent overall, their worst mark since December 25.

James, who got a night off on Cleveland's game against Houston, is averaging 29.0 points, 8.8 assists and 8.5 rebounds registering two triple-doubles in the Cavaliers' four games last week. The No. 1 team in the East, who are 52-22 overall and 30-7 at home, dropped to 1-3 without James this season and 4-13 over the last two.

James will be making his return from a game off and will help the Cavs to tighten their grip on top of the Eastern Conference team standings with the Toronto Raptors (50-24) not so far behind.

The Cavaliers hold a 2-1 advantage over the Nets this season. Cleveland has won its last five matches against Brooklyn at home.

The projected starting five for the Cavaliers are Kyrie Irving (G0), J.R. Smith (G), James (F), Kevin Love (F), and Timofey Mozgov (C), while the Nets is expected to field in Shane Larkin (G), Sergey Karasev (G), Bojan Bogdanovic (F), Thaddeus Young (F)and Brook Lopez (C)as its starters.

TagsNBA Preview, NBA 2016, cleveland cavaliers, Brooklyn Nets, Brook Lopez, Lebron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love