The Warriors and Cavaliers will clash in Cleveland.

The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers met on Christmas Day last year, and the Warriors found a way to win, 99-92. Since then, Golden State has won eight out of 10 games, but Cleveland has lost six of its eight matchups. Now, Cleveland and Golden State will meet again, at 8 p.m. ET on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. TNT (live stream) will broadcast this much anticipated game.

Behind Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, Golden State (35-9) is the top team in the Western Conference. The Warriors are the best three-point shooting team in the NBA, knocking down 38.9 percent of their strokes from downtown. Cleveland (26-16) has been struggling as of late, especially on defense. Over the past eight games, the Cavaliers have surrendered an average of 113.6 points per game.

The key to the Cavaliers' success in this game is simple: Play better defense. Golden State shot 46.3 percent without Curry on Christmas. But Cleveland knocked down only 31.8 percent of its attempts. This time, however, Curry will start and most likely wreak havoc from beyond the arc. Even though the Cavaliers have LeBron James running the show, Cleveland needs a total team effort to knock off the reigning NBA champions.

Time, TV channel, and streaming info

• Time: 8 p.m. ET
• Location: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
• TV: TNT
• Streaming: TNT Drama

Warriors vs. Cavs News

• Kevin Durant becomes second-youngest player to reach 20,000 points:

Kevin Durant became the second-youngest NBA player to score 20,000 points in his career, hitting the figure with a long two-point jumper in the first half against the Los Angeles Clipperson Wednesday. Durant is 29 years and 103 days old — only LeBron James, at 28 years and 17 days, reached that milestone quicker than him.

• Do Warriors’ superstars want to be All-Star captains? Curry says yes, Durant says no

So it brings up the question: Do Curry and Durant want to be captains? As reported by Anthony Slater of The Athletic, one does and one doesn’t.

Curry sounded enthused at the idea, saying, “Why not? I’ll be the first to usher in the new system. I used to go to the playground all the time and you wanted to be the guy picking teams. That meant you were something on the court back in the day. It’ll be a cool vibe to see how it all shakes out and how unique you can make the lineups.”

Durant, on the other hand, was not on board. He said that, “I don’t want to do it. I’d rather somebody else do it. It’s cool to be an All-Star, but all the extra stuff … I just want to go play in the game. (The new format)’s cool, a different way, a creative way that’s good for the fans. But me, I’ll let somebody else pick the teams.”

• The Cavaliers defense is broken. Here’s how they could fix it:

It’s January, and the Cavaliers are allowing the second-most points (109.5) per 100 possessions. The only team worse is the Sacramento Kings, who are currently tied for the 27th-best record in the league.

On Thursday, Cleveland suffered a humiliating thrashing from the Toronto Raptors, allowing four 30-plus quarters in a 133-99 defeat. They allowed the Raptors to hit half their shots while hitting 18 three-pointers, and they allowed it to happen after a long Wednesday film session where Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue hoped to send a message to his team. In their previous two games, the Cavs had allowed 127 points to both the Timberwolves and the Magic.

A LeBron James led team has never lost be 25 points on back to back nights. Ever.

• LeBron James called out of bounds on potentially game-winning possession:

The Cavaliers watched a 22-point lead fade away in the third quarter and in the end, the Pacerstook it for good, 97-95. The final few possessions were low-lighted by four uncharacteristically un-clutch plays from the guy who usually makes them magical, LeBron James.

He bricked a three-point shot and mid-range jumper on his second- and third-to-last shots of the game, but Ty Lue drew an isolation play for him with the Cavs down a point in the final 5.5 seconds.

With Darren Collison on him, this is where James usually shines as the bigger, stronger aggressor. But James’ heel caught the baseline, and his final play was ruled a turnover.

Warriors vs. Cavs prediction

The Cavaliers are struggling to perform well on defense, so look for the Warriors to win this game with ease.