The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be the most favored team in Eastern Conference playoff predictions this year. Do they have the capability to possibly become the 2016 NBA champion?

With last year’s MVP Stephen Curry suffering a sprained knee which will sideline him for at least two weeks, the San Antonio Spurs are now favored to win the Western Conference.

Recently, the Cavs swept the Detroit Pistons in the first round, thus making their odds of returning to the Finals look stronger than ever. They are currently facing the Atlanta Hawks in the second round.

In the regular season, the Cavs beat the Hawks all three times they played each other. The Cavs also faced the Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, sweeping them in four games.

Kyrie Irving broke his kneecap last year when Cavs faced the Warriors in the finals, missing the final games and the first two months of this season.  With the first round over, Irving converted on 47 percent of his three pointers, a huge upswing from last season.

Also last season, Kevin Love suffered a broken arm in the first round against the Boston Celtics. Now however, Love is very eager to be in the playoffs this year and is already doing very good so far.

Although LeBron seemed to carry the Cavs last year in the finals versus the Warriors, many are eager to see how the teams will play now that Kyrie and Kevin are currently healthy this year.

The starting lineup for the Cavs for the first round of the playoffs included Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson. All of their hard work and determination to make it to the finals helped them sweep the Pistons.

If the Cavs keep up their hard work and bring the same amount of effort into the next round of the playoffs, they might just end up making it back to the NBA Finals this year.