Cleveland Cavaliers at Charlotte Hornets: Television information, start time, and game preview

Happy New Year. Obviously, 2014 was quite a year for the Cleveland Cavaliers. There were ups, and there were downs. Now, it's over, and 2015 is upon us. Will it finally be a year with more ups than downs for this franchise?

Who: Cavs (18-14) at Charlotte Hornets (10-23)

When: 7 pm Eastern

Where: Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina

Television: Fox Sports Ohio

Music:

I promise, it's going to be okay eventually, even if it isn't right now.

The Cavs will be without LeBron James for the next couple of weeks. They're 0-3 so far without him this season. The statuses of Kevin Love and Shawn Marion are not clear at this time.

Without LeBron, the Cavs have to find a way to at least tread water. They're already six games behind the East-leading Raptors, and they have a tough swing out west coming up. Even though it is only January, the Cavs may soon lose any hope of guaranteeing themselves home court throughout the East's playoffs, which would make getting to the Finals a much tougher task.

When these two teams first met back in mid-December, the Cavs came away with a nine point win in Cleveland. Things haven't been going much better for the Hornets since then. They've lost four in a row, and they are four games out of the East's eighth spot.

Al Jefferson is going to miss this game (and be out for another few weeks) with a groin injury. Cody Zeller will start in his place. Lance Stephenson, who hasn't played since December 17th due to a pelvis injury, will likely be out tonight as well.

In order to match last season's win total, the Hornets would have to go 33-16 the rest of the way.

After tonight's game, the Cavs will be back home to host the Mavericks on Sunday.