Atlanta Hawks vs Cleveland Cavaliers live stream: Watch online free Thursday 7:10 ET as the night after Christmas pits two of the younger teams in the NBA that hope to open up a late present as a win.

The 10-17 Cleveland Cavaliers were expected to be a legit playoff team this year, but it has been a struggle almost 30 games in. In their matchup Thursday night vs the 15-13 Atlanta Hawks will be home against one of the surprises of the NBA season.

No more Josh Smith, yet the Atlanta Hawks are above .500. With 15 teams in the Eastern Conference, the Hawks are one of three teams to be above .500. The other two are the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers. Watch the free live stream online to see if the Cavaliers can get a big win vs a top-three team in the conference.

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After winning three games in a row, Atlanta went -7 in the fourth quarter to the defending NBA champion Heat, the Hawks lost by two in overtime for what would have been their biggest win of the year.

"Our group competed tonight and our group improved tonight, and I think that's one of the things we've been talking about all year, is that we want to compete and we want to improve," coach Mike Budenholzer told ESPN.com. "I'm proud of our group. Obviously we would have liked to have won the game."

The Hawks, who went 17 of 34 from 3-point range, are averaging 118.8 points over the last four games going into the game against a Cavaliers team that is allowing 101.7 PPG.

"There's a lot of good things that we did." Paul Millsap, who made a career-high seven 3s. "Things are clicking told ESPN.com. We feel like we're getting better. So just take the positives and leave the negatives here."

Cleveland, which was outscored 58-40 in the paint and 19-7 in transition, was also outrebounded 50-39 and limited to 38.6 percent shooting in its 20-plus point loss to the Detroit Pistons.

"Our sense of urgency the last two ballgames has been non-existent," coach Mike Brown said. "I don't know if we mentally understand what it takes to keep doing this every time we step out on the floor. We're getting hit in the mouth right now and I'm interested to see if we can respond the right way."