Atlanta Hawks survive late scare, stun Cavaliers at home 117-115

Whew! What a game. After leading by as many as 16, the Atlanta Hawks were able to fend off a late Cavs surge at Quicken Loans Arena in order to notch their second win of the season.

This was an electric game throughout if you were a Hawks fan, and there many, many points of interest.

The Hawks came out of the gate smoking hot in both halves, reeling off a season-high 37 points in the 1st and 3rd quarters. Much of the Hawks’ effectiveness on offense to start the halves stemmed from the fact that Luke Babbitt was starting in place of Mike Muscala, who was out with an ankle injury.

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While Muscala has been known to hit his fair share of spot-up threes, Luke Babbitt is much more of a threat from distance, and in the end, Babbitt’s knockdown shooting proved to be a huge difference-maker in his team-leading and career-high 41 minutes.

In a game that saw a whopping 49 fouls called between the two teams (29 on the Cavs and 20 on the Hawks), the Hawks were unable to put distance between themselves and the Cavs at the end of the 4th quarter by missing critical free throws.

The Cavs were rock-solid from the line, going 21 of 23 (91.3%), but the Hawks were shaky with a 24 of 34 (70.6%) showing at the charity stripe. In particular, Kent Bazemore split 4 straight free throws after a flagrant foul and a shooting foul were called on the same play.

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Isaiah Taylor, however, missed the two biggest free throws of the night after he was fouled on the inbound pass with 12.1 seconds remaining in the game. Two makes would’ve sealed it, and one would’ve given the Hawks a three-point lead. Taylor left both short, which allowed the Cavs to streamroll down the court — with LeBron James leading the way of course — leading to an open Channing Frye 3-pointer, which went begging.

Despite some less-than-stellar performances on the free-throw line, the Hawks performed well in three-point territory, pouring in 11 of 25 shooting (44%) from beyond the arc. Compare that to the Cavs, who were 10 of 36 (27.8%) from outside, and without the deadeye sniping of former Hawk great Kyle Korver, the home team would’ve gone a paltry 5 of 25.

In a game rife with storylines, there were many notable performances for both teams. For the Cavs, the bench players provided necessary sparks. In particular, noted Hawk-killer Dwyane Wade provided a vintage performance with a +23 in +/- and 23 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists off the bench.

Kyle Korver also turned in a +23 performance with 23 points on 8 of 14 shooting (5 of 11 from downtown). LeBron James cooled off a bit after a seismic showing against the Washington Wizards on Friday night that saw the 4-time MVP put up 57 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists; Lebron was actually a -4 in his 40 minutes of play on Sunday afternoon with 26 points, 13 assists and 6 turnovers.

In what was a gutsy and entertaining home win, the Hawks had many standout performers led by a stellar game from Dennis Schröder. Though Dennis was in foul trouble for much of the 3rd and 4th quarters, he still led the team with 28 points and 9 assists and was a +7. He was hyper-efficient from the floor, shooting 9 of 13 (69.2%) and a perfect 8 of 8 from the free throw line.

Schröder was unstoppable on his drives, as the Cavs wafer-thin defense was almost completely powerless to stop him. Derrick Rose, in particular, got roasted on numerous occasions:

The Hawks other point guard, Isaiah Taylor, also showed his tremendous speed off the dribble, slicing and dicing the Cavs’  sieve-like defense for a career-high 14 points. This was 2 more points than his previous career-high of 12 — set two nights ago against the Houston Rockets.

Taylor was active all over the floor, with his hustle and intensity coming up big in the clutch — notably when he outran the entire Cavs team to beat the buzzer in the 3rd quarter:

Kent Bazemore had his best game of the season so far, popping off for a near triple-double: 14 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. When Baze is on, it seems like he is everywhere on the floor — flying around with speed and precision, his long, athletic frame skying for rebounds and squaring up for confident jump shots and dunks — and this best-case scenario definitely came to fruition on this night.

However, as has been the case for much of the Hawks’ season in the early goings, the performance of John Collins was the true highlight of this game.

Collins led the team in +/- with a +15, and he once again showcased his tenacious, outrageous rebounding skills by fighting off wave after wave of Cavaliers to the tune of 13 boards, 7 of which were offensive.

JC just knows how to box out and get in great position for putbacks and tip-ins. Though he was almost completely unable to finish any of those easy shots (he went 3 of 10 from the field, all of which were point-blank putbacks), he will be able to finish those with time and seasoning, and so far, he looks like one of the Hawks’ best players.

Also, he finally got that first elusive highlight dunk early in the 4th quarter, smashing one into Cedi Osman‘s head:

Let’s hope that’s the first of many.

Next: What’s the ceiling for emerging rookie John Collins?

The Hawks return home for a back-to-back tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. EST against Kyrie Irving and the new-look Boston Celtics. The Hawks will be looking to build on this impressive win and notch their first home victory of the season.