Dwight Howard gave his hometown team and fans a glimpse of a new era.
The Hawks center had 26 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 23 minutes of a 99-93 exhibition win over the unrecognizable Cavaliers Monday night at Philips Arena. It was the Hawks’ first preseason home game and debut of Howard in Atlanta.
He impressed.
Howard played into the third quarter of the game before ending his night. He was 11 of 15 from the floor that included four dunks, two of the alley-oop variety from Dennis Schroder. Howard was 4 of 9 from the free-throw line.
Howard said he simply wanted to be aggressive from the start of the game. As far as the pick-and-roll game with Schroder, that’s a work in progress.
“It’s getting better,” Howard said. “There are a lot of things we have to work on – the pick-and-roll, making sure I get a chance to hit his man on a lot of the screens, things we can fix. That comes with time.”
The win came against a Cavaliers team that chose to sit most of their significant players, including LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson, Mike Dunleavy and Chris Anderson.
The Hawks started their likely lineup – minus the rehabilitating Paul Millsap – of Kyle Korver, Kent Bazemore, Mike Muscala, Schroder and Howard.
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer called the game “interesting” and said there were some good points.
“The different ways we found to get Dwight Howard the ball around the basket and to get him going,” Budenholzers said. “The way in played in general on both ends of the court, I thought was good.”
The Hawks (2-1) got 12 points, four rebounds and three assists from Thabo Sefolosha. Muscala (10 points), Taurean Prince (10), Bazemore (eight), DeAndre Bembry (seven), Schroder (six), Korver (five) and Edy Tavares were the other top scorers. Tavares added five rebounds and Muscala had five assists. The Hawks led by as many as 14 points only to have the Cavaliers erase the first-half lead. The Hawks surged ahead for good with the regulars done for the evening after between 18-24 minutes.
The Hawks were 2 of 18 from 3-point range after missing their first 13 long-range attempts.
The Cavaliers (2-1) were led by Jonathan Holmes with 15 points, including three 3-pointers, off the bench. Rookie Kay Felder, who the Cavaliers drafted with a selection purchased from the Hawks in June, had 15 points. Cory Jefferson added 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Hawks dubbed the contest a Unity Game to showcase of theme of togetherness and inclusion. The Hawks and Cavaliers alternated players and locked arms during the playing of the national anthem in a sign of unity. The team also asked the Philips Arena crowd to join in the gesture, something Howard suggested the Hawks would do earlier last week. In addition to several other Unity Game promotions, the Hawks donated $10,000 to Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights during a halftime ceremony.
“It was great to see the Cavs and the Hawks organization to do something tonight to emphasize how important unity is,” Budenholzer said. “As a league, unity and how our players work together and how our organizations work together, hopefully we can make a difference.”
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