LeBron James scored 30 points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 94-82 win over the Atlanta Hawks, giving the team a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

The visitors were dealt a bow before tipoff when Kyrie Irving was ruled out with a knee problem, but Timothy Mozgov stepped up to get the Cavaliers off to a bright start.

JR Smith kept the points coming, extending Cleveland's lead to 10 early in the second quarter, but Jeff Teague and Al Horford made sure that the Hawks had a dominant spell before half time to keep them in the game.

The Cavaliers upped their game at the start of the third, with Matthew Dellavedova and Iman Shumpert both making three-pointers shortly after the restart, while James opened up a 19-point gap.

Pero Antic and Shelvin Mack tried to close the gap late on for the top seeds, but they never threatened to overturn the deficit.

The teams meet again in Cleveland on Sunday.