Closer, but still a loss for Hawks vs. Cavs

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

CLEVELAND -- It took a season-best night from LeBron James, a controversial non-call and the unlikeliest of 3-pointers for Cleveland to beat the Hawks.

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Tony Dejak, AP tlanta Hawks forward Maurice Evans (1) dunks in front of Cleveland Cavaliers' Anderson Varejao (17), of Brazil, in the second quarter.

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Regardless of how the Cavaliers got the win, it still registers as a second consecutive loss for the Hawks to Cleveland. One night after beating the Hawks at Philips Arena, the Cavs dealt them a second bitter defeat Wednesday, this time by a 106-101 count.

The Hawks cried foul after the game over an apparent shot-clock error with about two minutes to play. Coach Mike Woodson said the team will file a protest with the NBA.

"It's a shame it's got to come down to that, but, hey, it's what it is," Woodson said. "We'll figure it out when the league reviews it."

The Hawks led 99-98 when Cleveland guard Mo Williams missed a shot off the backboard that Hawks center Al Horford rebounded. The shot clock did not re-set on the change of possession, forcing them to play with the remainder of the 24 seconds left on the clock at the time of Williams' miss, roughly 12 seconds. As the Hawks' bench tried to alert officials of the situation, forward Josh Smith tried to get off a shot but lost the ball to James.

"That was kind of like a momentum swing," Smith said. "I thought that one official is supposed to check the clock and not all three of them [paying] attention to the game."

After James' steal, the Cavaliers took a 100-99 lead on a basket by forward Anderson Varejao with 1:31 left. The Hawks tied the score at 101 with a layup by guard Joe Johnson with 41.5 seconds left. On the next possession, with the shot clock running down, the 6-foot-11 Varejao made a desperation shot that was first ruled a two-point basket but then a 3-pointer, his first successful 3-pointer in 19 career tries.

"That's his first career 3-pointer?" Hawks guard Jamal Crawford asked. "Wow. That's a tough way to lose."

The Hawks, which looked at these two games as measuring sticks and statement games, have lost two in a row for only the second time this season and are 21-10. Cleveland is 26-8.

After going scoreless for more than nine minutes in the third and fourth quarters and losing 95-84 on Tuesday night in Atlanta, the Hawks controlled the game from the start, building a 14-point second-quarter lead. The Cavaliers took the game back in the second half, outscoring the Hawks 54-37 in the final two quarters. James scored a season-high 48 points one night after being held to 14.

Woodson implied that the shot-clock non-call was at the heart of the loss.

"We've got a one-point lead with the ball going the other way, and we're rushing to get a shot because the clock is not in our favor," he said. "You figure it out."

"I think we should have won this game," said guard Mike Bibby, who missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds remaining. "I think [the Cavaliers] know that, too."

The Hawks have been down the protest road previously. The Miami Heat protested a December 2007 overtime loss to the Hawks after Heat center Shaquille O'Neal was mistakenly ruled to have fouled out of the game. NBA commissioner David Stern found the Hawks were grossly negligent in giving O'Neal an extra foul, leading to a replay of the final 51.9 seconds of the game almost three months later, which the Hawks won again.