Hawks Fall to Cavs on LeBron’s 17-Assist Triple-Double
By Chris Guest
After a fateful trade deadline in which their entire roster was overhauled, the Cavs came into Atlanta and didn’t miss a beat by pummeling the Atlanta Hawks in the second half on the way to an easy 123-107 victory.
Cleveland only had nine players available, but among them there were multiple superlative performances headlined, as always, by the magnificence of LeBron James. James finished with a triple-double of 22-12-17, and those 17 assists matched a career-high (he also matched that same career-high earlier this season… against the Hawks).
In his first NBA start, Cavs rookie Cedi Osman looked great throughout this game, and his energy and defensive intensity seemed to catch the Hawks completely unawares at times. In what was something of a coming-out party, Osman set career-highs in minutes (38), points (16), rebounds (6), assists (5) and steals (3).
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Former Hawk great Kyle Korver scorched his old team with 7 of 13 shooting from downtown and a season-high 30 points.
Korver was unconscious in the 3rd quarter, a quarter in which Cleveland outscored Atlanta 36-26 and completely took over the game.
The Hawks had no answers for Cleveland’s offense, and, again, all of their damage was done by a skeleton crew of nine and almost completely invisible defense from the Cavs.
Atlanta was also not helped by its passing, as the team could just not move the ball around in the vein of Bud-ball. Even when the pass was finding the open man, the Hawks shot only 43.5 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from three.
In comparison, the Cavs were smoking (53.5% from the field, 42.9% from downtown) and the away team outscored Atlanta 48-34 in the paint and 26-11 on fast breaks.
The Cavs also exhibited tremendous balance on offense, as six players scored in double figures.