A brief recap of how the Hawks fell behind 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals:

How the game was won: Much like in Game 1, Atlanta mustered little second-half offense, the Hawks again were whipped by the long ball as Cleveland made 12 3-pointers to Atlanta's six, and again the Hawks beaten on the boards, 47-39, in a game played out by the Hawks' rarely-used subs.

Cavs reserve guard J.R. Smith came nowhere close to matching his career playoff-high 28 points (he scored nine), but LeBron James did his thing with 30 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, Iman Shumpert made four 3-pointers while scoring 16, and sub forward James Jones drained 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Kyle Korver found traction to score 12 points, but they were all in the first half and after trailing 54-49 at halftime, the Hawks hit just 13-of-38 shots (34.2) in the second half after making 12-of-37 in the second half of Game 1.

Reserve guard Dennis Schroder led Atlanta with 13 points.

Turning point: After the Hawks took a 17-15 lead on two Korver free throws with 2:46 left in the first quarter, the Cavs made good use of a timeout and went on an 11-2 run during which James scored six of his 13 first-quarter points. After James made two free throws following a flagrant foul by Pero Antic with 1:57 to go in the first, the Hawks never tied or led.

Number: 20.4. Atlanta has made just 20.4 percent of its 3-pointers (10-of-49) in the series. The Cavs' 3-point defensive field goal rate 28.6 percent allowed leads all playoff teams.

Next: The Hawks and Cavs will meet in Cleveland Sunday evening for Game 3.

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