Cavs host Hawks with top East seed in sight (Apr 07, 2017)
CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Cavaliers went from a train wreck to the verge of clinching first place in the Eastern Conference.
First, the Cavs pounded the Celtics 114-91 on Wednesday night to take a one-game lead over Boston. The win also gave Cleveland a 3-1 win in the season series; so, if the teams finish tied, the Cavs would be the No. 1 seed based on the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Then the Celtics lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 123-116, on Thursday, which bumped the Cavs' lead to 1 1/2 games. With four games remaining on Cleveland's schedule, a win over Atlanta on Friday at Quicken Loans Arena would reduce the Cavs' magic number to one.
Not bad for a Cleveland club that had lost three straight and five of the last seven before its current four-game winning streak.
"I'm pretty sure everybody is going to write about it, probably this drastic change, all of the sudden the Cavs are contenders again," Kyrie Irving said after beating the Celtics. "But for us, it's just really minimizing the mistakes that we make down on the floor and what we're doing offensively and defensively."
During the winning streak, the Cavs held opponents to 43.5 percent shooting -- below their opponents' field-goal percentage for the season (45.7 percent) and on par (granted, a much smaller sample size) with the Warriors' league-leading .434 opponents' shooting percentage.
J.R. Smith is surging at the right time. In the past five games, he has made 21 of 40 from 3-point range and scored in double figures in each game. And Kyle Korver is healthy again -- all he did was shoot nearly 60 percent from long range in February before a sore left foot cost him much of March.
Those factors, plus LeBron James' usual dominance (two triple-doubles this week and 36 points against the Celtics) have the Cavs looking much more like their championship-defending selves.
"Only time will tell, but we played Cavs basketball tonight," James said. "And, when we do that, we're a pretty good team."
Including the 2015 and 2016 playoffs, the Cavs have won 12 of the last 13 games over the Hawks. The last time the teams played, March 3 in Atlanta, Cleveland set the NBA record for 3-pointers, with 25 in a 135-130 victory.
The Hawks really needed that win over Boston. With the win and Milwaukee's loss to the Pacers, Atlanta holds a half-game lead over the Bucks for fifth in the East. The Hawks had lost nine of their past 11 games before beating the Celtics.
"At some point, we just needed to win a game, and I think that's where our focus is," Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "These are good teams in these next games that will prepare you for the playoffs."
Before the game, Budenholzer announced that Paul Millsap will not play against the Cavs. He recently missed eight games with a knee injury, and the Hawks do not want him to play in back-to-back contests.
The Cavs aren't fully healthy either. Center Tristan Thompson (sprained right thumb) will miss his second consecutive game, which could open up the interior for Atlanta big man Dwight Howard to wreak havoc.
