Battered and bruised - Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James said his team-mates are relishing time off the court.

The Cavaliers take on the Atlanta Hawks in game one of the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday, with guard Kyrie Irving under an injury cloud.

Irving has been hampered by tendinitis in his left knee since the first round of the play-offs and sat out practice on Saturday, while Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert have picked up niggles along the way.

"It goes without saying that we're banged up right now," James said on Saturday.

"One of our best players [Kevin Love] is out for the season. Our All-Star point guard has been banged up since game two of the Boston series.

"You see a guy like Tristan [Thompson], a guy who hasn't missed a game in 19 years, probably since he's been born, falls on his shoulder like that, you kind of get a little scared about it.

"Then myself, I have my nicks and bruises throughout the season and also in the post-season. Then you have Shump [Iman Shumpert], who has a partially banged-up groin that he's playing with."

James, whose team are on the road in Atlanta, added: "I'll lock in tomorrow and be ready for the next series.

"Yesterday I took the day off. I did absolutely nothing but play with my kids, did whatever they wanted to do yesterday, including basketball, which I did not want to do, but they made me go out there on the court.

"Today I was able to get some work in but I'm not where I would like to be.

"I'm not going to lock in this early, but I will be back to my normal form tomorrow."