After a rather slow start into the season, the Memphis Grizzlies surprised many experts around the league with an impressive run back to the playoff race in December and January. Hoping to continue their recent upswing, the Memphis Grizzlies will take on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday at midnight GMT.

While the Grizzlies would be thrilled to simply make a post-season appearance in 2009-10, the Cavs are still chasing a championship ring. Considering that franchise centerpiece LeBron James will become a free agent after this season, the window for Cleveland could be closing sooner rather than later. However, so far the Cavaliers have been playing excellent basketball and lead the Eastern Conference with an impressive 37-11 record, five games ahead of the Orlando Magic. Most importantly, the Cavs managed to perform consistently at the defensive end of the floor, holding their opponents to just 94 points per contest. Likewise, Shaquille O’Neal showed that his career is not over yet and contributed 11.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.

Memphis on the other hand started the season at the bottom of the league and everything was pointing to another year in the draft lottery. Yet, Rudy Gay and company managed to get their act together and rallied back to the playoff mix. Posting a solid 25-21 record, the Grizzlies are just half a game behind the eight seeded Hornets despite being in the tough Southwest Division. One key factor for Memphis’ recent success has been off-season acquisition Zach Randolph who is about to make his first All-Star appearance in February. In 46 games, Randolph put up 21.0 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per contest. However, despite said improvements, the Cavs still appear to be on a different level of play than the Grizzlies. Especially Memphis’ mediocre team defense could turn out to be an issue when the game between the Cavaliers and Grizzlies gets underway on Wednesday night.

You can watch all games of the Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers right here on www.watchlivenba.com, the home of NBA live streaming.