Late last spring, the Cavaliers swept the 60-win Hawks out of the postseason to claim the Conference crown. On Monday night – with their third straight regular season win and seventh straight against Atlanta – they locked up the top spot in the east, overcoming a sluggish start and coasting to the 109-94 win.
No matter what the Raptors do in their final two games of the 2015-16 season, Monday night’s victory ensures the Wine and Gold (57-24) the top seed and homecourt throughout the Eastern Conference Playoffs, which tip off this weekend. The Cavaliers will face either the Pacers or the Pistons when they do.
Whoever the Cavaliers face, they’ll have to deal with a locked-and-loaded LeBron James – who continued his late-season onslaught against Atlanta. In just three quarters of work, James finished with 34 points – the third game in his last four outings topping the 30-point plateau – going 13-for-16 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from long-range, to go with six boards, six assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
Including Monday night’s gem, James has gone 47-of-64 (.734) from the floor, 11-of-13 (.727) from three-point range and 13-of-14 (.929) from the stripe over his last four games.
Kyrie Irving did his work in four quarters, the fourth of which was a thing of beauty – notching 13 of his game-high 35 points in the final period. After struggling from the floor on Saturday night in Chicago, Irving was rock-solid against Atlanta – going an even 14-for-28 from the floor, including 4-of-8 from deep.
The third member of Cleveland’s Big Three — Kevin Love – didn’t have a big scoring night, but did manage to lead both teams with 14 boards, adding 10 points to notch his team-leading 35th double-double of the season.
The only other Cavalier in double-figures was Atlanta’s Australian nemesis, Matthew Dellavedova, who added 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting to go with three assists in 20 productive minutes off the bench.
Tristan Thompson – who Coach Tyronn Lue confirmed would be the squad’s starter the rest of the way – snagged 10 boards of his own to go with nine points, three steals and a blocked shot.
The Cavaliers got off to a rough start on Monday night – spotting Atlanta the first 10 points of the night before finding their rhythm and cutting the Hawks’ lead to just four after one quarter. Cleveland took a six-point edge into intermission and didn’t look back in the second stanza.
The Hawks were led by Kent Bazemore, who scored 21 points before halftime but was limited to just a single field goal in the final two quarters. Jeff Teague followed up with 21 points and a game-high nine assists.
The Cavaliers were efficient on both ends in Monday’s win – shooting 48 percent from the floor and drilling double-digit threes for the 18th time in their last 19 games. Cleveland held the Hawks to 45 percent shooting on the night, including 26 percent (8-of-30) from long-distance.
In taking seven straight against the Hawks – including a two-point overtime win earlier this month – the Wine and Gold have topped Atlanta by an average of 11.7 points per.
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