Cavaliers-Hawks: Five Observations

The Hawks have lost all five overtime games this season. They were outscored 14-12 in the final period Friday. Trailing by a point after James went 1 of 2 from the free-throw line, Millsap missed a drive to the basket, the final option of several in the offensive set. From there the Cavaliers won with Kyrie Irving making 5 of 6 from the free throw line.

The Hawks were clearly frustrated following the game of their failures in extra periods.

“We’ve got to do better,” Paul Millsap said. “It’s as simple as that. It seems like one or two plays, if we can be the team on the other end of that, we’ll pull games off. … We are right there. We are a play or two away from doing something special. A lot of our losses have come down to one play. We’ve just got to make it.”

The Hawks are also 0-5 against the Cavaliers and Raptors this season, the two top teams in the Eastern Conference.

2. Cavs’ early run

The Hawks went on a 17-5 first quarter run to take a 17-10 lead with 6:37 left in the first quarter. The Cavaliers called timeout. Good times. However, the Cavs answered with a 37-11 run to end the first and start the second quarter. Just like that, the Hawks trailed 47-28. During one part of the stretch, the Hawks went 8:11 without a field goal and were 0 of 15 from the floor. Overall, they were 2 of 19 from the field during the severe cold spell. The Cavaliers led by as many as 21 points in the first half and took a 55-41 lead into intermission.

3. Bazemore falls hard

Kent Bazemore challenged LeBron James on a drive to the basket in the first quarter that resulted in a dreadful fall. Bazemore drove and tried to dunk over James, who was called for a blocking foul. Bazemore was sideways in the air before hitting the floor hard. He stayed down for a short time holding his head. He got up and made the two free-throw attempts. Bazemore came out of the game less than a minute later. He was attended to on the bench by Hawks trainers for a cut on his right elbow. He returned and finished the game.

“It was scary,” Bazemore said. “But being proactive, staying in the weight room, doing the right things to take care of your body you absorb some of those scary things. … I wanted to dunk it on him but he was in the right place. LeBron James probably doesn’t practice taking charges. Bad execution.”

Bazemore said he got an X-ray on his left wrist following the game that was negative.

4. Hawks’ late runs

The Hawks erased their first-half deficit to start the third quarter. They went on a 23-6 run to take a 64-61 lead with 4:01 remaining in the quarter. Kyle Korver (2), Bazemore and Millsap hit 3-pointers in the stretch. Millsap’s long-distance basket gave the Hawks the lead.

Millsap implored his teammates to play a more physical brand of basketball at halftime.

The Cavs answered with a mini-run of their own to take a 77-71 lead into the fourth quarter. They would push their advantage to 11 points before the Hawks answered again. They went on a 19-4 run to take a four-point advantage with under four minutes remaining. They couldn’t hold that lead either.

“There are a few plays there, even in the fourth quarter, we had the ball and we were up and we ended up giving them a lob dunk at the end,” Kyle Korver said. “Those are the plays we have to be better at. We can’t give those plays up. That’s where our growth is, I think.”

5. Too much LeBron

The Hawks battled back from a 21-point deficit and took their brief three-point lead. The Cavaliers had another run, a 23-9 spurt between the third and fourth quarters, to regain a double-digit advantage at 84-73. James had nine of the Cavaliers’ points, including five of the first seven. With a third-quarter basket, James scored his 22nd point of the game to move past Oscar Robertson for 11th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. James was one assist shy of a triple-double with 29 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists. The Hawks used a number of defenders on James – including Bazemore, Millsap, Al Horford and Thabo Sefolosha.