Hawks Fall to Cavs on LeBron’s 17-Assist Triple-Double

Individually for the Hawks, Coach Bud was able to balance an overstuffed rotation – as 9 of the 11 players who received time played 20 minutes or more. Of those 11 players, six scored in double figures including 4 of the 5 starters, starting with…

Dennis Schröder completely shredded the Cavs in the first half, and Jose Calderon had absolutely no chance of guarding him off the dribble. Schröd finished with a team-high 25 points in this game, 19 of which came in the 1^st half, including this circus shot following a sweet spin move:

Schröd was quieted by a much more focused defensive effort – as well as defensive whirlwind LeBron switching onto him on numerous occasions – in the 2^nd half by the Cavs.

DS17 had an overall solid game, and he shot an extremely efficient 10 of 18 for the floor for his 25 points, which included a very poor 2 of 8 showing from downtown.

Despite having a great 2017-18 season for Atlanta, Dennis has not proven himself to be a good three-point shooter in the NBA, so those 8 attempts (many of which came very early in the shot clock) were extraneous to the Hawks’ needs.

Kent Bazemore scored 13 points to go along with 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 26 minutes, and he drilled all 4 of his three-point attempts.

Ersan Ilyasova played 26 minutes and logged an extremely quiet 12 points on 3 of 6 shooting with 5 rebounds and a team-high +13 box plus/minus. Ersan also hit 2 of his 3 three-point attempts, which was nice to see, as he had seemingly gone cold in recent weeks from deep.

Taurean Prince was nowhere near as efficient as Ilyasova, as it took him 16 shots to notch 15 points. The truly remarkable number was an 0 of 9 showing from downtown – definitely an eyesore on the stat sheet.  Let’s hope he can get those shots to fall in time for the Rising Stars game.

Rounding out the starters, Miles Plumlee didn’t do a whole lot, but he did finish this lob from Dennis with aplomb:

https://twitter.com/ATLHawks/status/962144520174428160

Off the bench, Tyler Dorsey was the first substitution employed by Coach Bud and that confidence in Dorsey seemed to embolden the 21-year-old guard.

Dorsey was not shy about getting up his shot, as he set new career-highs in field goal attempts (11) and three-point attempts (7). TD connected on 3 of those three-pointers, which tied his career-high so far in his young career.

The rookie was looking in sharp in extended minutes against one of the greatest players of all time, and the stage certainly did not seem too big for him. In 23 minutes, Dorsey tied his career high with 14 points.

The yin to Dorsey’s yang was the performance of John Collins, who did not have his usual bounce. Perhaps he was affected by a headfirst collided into Cavs veteran Jeff Green in the 2^nd quarter, but that smack to the face did not affect Green, who notched 24 points.

JC had 2 points and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes, and he had no highlight plays, which had seemingly become a commonplace nightly occurrence for John.

One player who did have a highlight play for the Hawks was Dewayne Dedmon. Though Dedmon was quiet for much of this game (scoring 3 points on only 1 of 2 shooting from deep), he viciously swatted a weak Jeff Green layup attempt into the stands:

Dedmon finished with 3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in 23 minutes of action for the home team.

Isaiah Taylor was exhumed tonight for the Hawks, playing his most minutes since January 5^th and scoring his most point since December 2^nd. Taylor looks active and rested after being on the lower end of the rotation for a while, and he even hit 2 corner threes in this game, which marks only the second time he’s made more than 1 in a game all season.

Next: Luke Babbitt Traded in Quiet Deadline for Hawks

The Hawks return to action on Sunday afternoon for a 3:30 p.m. EST tipoff against Blake Griffin and the new-look Detroit Pistons.