Especially when LeBron James is the one operating said switch. “We’ve had some good moments and some not-so-good moments – like today”.
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The Atlanta Hawks topped their stunning short-handed victory in Cleveland on Friday with a 26-point fourth-quarter comeback on Sunday to shock the Cavaliers in overtime.
In all likelihood, though, the Finals will come down to another Golden State-Cleveland matchup that will leave the Hawks in the no man’s land that is the middle of the Eastern Conference, somewhere between contending and tanking. “Cleveland owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with Boston, which has two games remaining in its regular-season schedule”. The Cavs lost, 114-100, and the game had Eastern Conference seeding implications, as the Boston Celtics continue to hang around, just one game back in the race for the one seed.
The Cavaliers, who set an National Basketball Association record with 25 3-point baskets in Atlanta on March 3, hit their first three treys and had seven in going up 38-21 after the first quarter.
Even Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer noted: “A fourth quarter like that is hard to explain”. And they certainly don’t lose by 14.
Not the greatest performance by the officiating crew, but the Celtics will take the help any way they can get it.
By the Numbers – 44.0 … points that Kyrie Irving is averaging in two games at Philips Arena this season – shooting.588 from the floor, including.650 from long-range, to go with 9.0 assists and 2.5 steals per contest. Millsap hit all three foul shots to make it 111-109 with 8 seconds to go. Kyrie Irving pushed the lead back to five with a pair of free throws 10 seconds later.
“If we finish high – fifth, fourth in the conference then we will have that advantage in the first round as well”. “Once that flip-flops, the game started changing and the momentum shifted”.
But that didn’t scare off a depleted Atlanta Hawks team on the second game of a back-to-back.
“You expect for us to want to get better and we were doing that and we took a couple steps back tonight”, James said. Tonight is where we needed guys to pick up the energy and pick up the slack. “They did a phenomenal job of coming in”. Kyrie Irving played 33 and then complained of knee soreness after the game.Instead of toppling the Hawks and getting the magic number down to one, possibly solidifying the No. 1 seed Saturday with a Celtics loss against Charlotte, the Cavs threw away that chance.
Hardaway was excellent in Friday night’s game. Yet another told ESPN of the Cavs’ up-and-down nature, “I don’t get it”. He had been expected to miss the remainder of the regular season when he sprained his right elbow on March 15.
The Hawks have won at least one playoff series each of the previous two seasons. The Los Angeles Lakers did it December 6, 2002, against Dallas and Milwaukee did it at the Omni, Atlanta’s old home floor, on November 25, 1977.
Cavaliers: Visit Miami, where they’ve lost 12 straight, on Monday.
Channing Frye had 12 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, Kevin Love finished with a double-double of 11 points and 15 rebounds and Kyle Korver scored 11 points off the bench for the Cavaliers. Totals 45-98 16-20 125.
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Head to head, the Cavs are 5-1 ATS in the last six meetings in Atlanta and 8-3 ATS in the last 11 meetings overall.
