ATLANTA -- Here are a few off-the-cuff observations from the Hawks' 109-101 defeat of the Cleveland Cavaliers at Philips Arena -- an Atlanta victory that wholly counts in the standings ... despite the high-profile absence of birthday boy LeBron James (knee soreness).
**Atlanta's monthly mark of 14-2 stands as the NBA's best record for December.
In the first half, I counted at least six possessions with Atlanta executing five passes before the first shot attempt. On the Cavs' end, I could not recall a sequence when Cleveland made three clean passes -- before the shot -- on back-to-back opportunities.
Yes, Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving (35 points, nine assists, six rebounds vs. Atlanta) has superb skills, but he's not yet transcendent in terms of regularly involving teammates in a half-court setting. Yes, Dion Waiters (nine points, four rebounds) has offensive flair coming off the bench ... but he also looks aimless without the ball in his hands.
And yes, Kevin Love (seven points, seven boards in limited action -- back spasms) and Tristan Thompson (18 points, 13 rebounds) work hard without LeBron carrying the mail ... but so do washing machines.
In all, the Hawks forced 20 Cavs turnovers and converted those miscues into 31 points. The five starters accounted for positive plus/minus ratios on the court, as well.
Add that to Atlanta's hot shooting from the field (51 percent) and beyond the arc (10 triples), along with the slight edge in rebounding (44-42), and it's easy to see why the Hawks hold a 2-1 series lead with the Cavaliers (18-13) ... and how a five-game advantage in the "loss" column represents a sizable gap for the spring.
And one that could loom larger in the coming weeks, thanks to Atlanta's favorable January schedule (more on that later).
In terms of offensive execution, the Hawks' coup de grace moment came in the third quarter: On a half-court possession, they tossed five crisp, in-motion passes, before setting up a flashing-to-the-ball DeMarre Carroll for an and-1 jumper from 6 feet out.
That sequence encapsulated the Hawks' unselfish proficiency -- for the first 2 1/2 quarters, at least -- and the Cavaliers' lack of defensive detail, in terms of beating cutters to the spot.
With the double news of LeBron resting and center Al Hoford being a very late scratch (stomach nausea sometime around the pregame national anthem), you'd think the Hawks' bout of sluggishness would have occurred in the beginning.
(Kyle Korver didn't even realize Pero Antic was in the starting lineup until the opening tip.)
Instead, Atlanta came out ready to play in the opening stanza, racing to a 10-point halftime lead, while shooting 50 percent from the field. That advantage even ballooned to 17 in the second half, after Jeff Teague (23 points, 11 boards, five assists, three steals) converted an easy driving layup.
Soon after, Atlanta would fall into a pattern of allowing Irving to break down the defense in a variety of ways, especially after Love left the game to back discomfort. And this period of inefficient, unproductive play was hardly lost on Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer in the postgame.
"Nights like these can be hard, for many reasons," said Budenholzer, noting the absences of James, Horford and even Love by game's end.
"Human nature sometimes -- no matter how much we try to fight it -- it can be hard," said Budenholzer, in his second year leading the Hawks. "We don't want to lower our expectations, or (cease to) continue building our habits. It just wasn't a pretty game."
A few minutes later, Budenholzer reversed course, perception-wise, praising the reliability of Teague (third double-double this season), Kyle Korver (19 points, eight rebounds) and Paul Millsap (26 points, nine boards).
"Paul made a lot of big plays down the stretch. He was decisive, aggressive ... he and (Teague) made a lot of plays to bring us home."
With Rajon Rondo now part of the Western Conference (Dallas Mavericks) and Deron Williams no longer resembling a "max-contract" talent, the door has seemingly swung wide open for Teague to join Eastern point guards Kyrie Irving, John Wall (Wizards) and Derrick Rose (Bulls) in New York City on Valentine's Day Weekend (Feb. 13-15).
For the Hawks' December breakthrough, Teague racked up five outings of 20-plus points, four games of five-plus rebounds and seven efforts of seven-plus assists -- piggybacking off the elite-level success from November, when the Wake Forest product averaged 17.9 points, 7.1 assists and 2.2 steals.
Of equal importance, Teague seems to save his most skillful performances for the head-to-head encounters with the NBA's surfeit of top-notch point guards.
It's never wise to presume victory on random NBA nights, especially before the post-All-Star-break sprint for playoff positioning.
That aside, Atlanta's 17-game January slate includes single meetings with sluggish Utah (10-21 heading into Tuesday), Boston (10-18), Indiana (11-21), Minnesota (5-24) and double must-have opportunities with Detroit (7-23) and Philadelphia (4-25).
All told, that's eight eminently winnable outings in a 31-day window.
And even if the Hawks went 4-5 for the other nine games during that stretch (Clippers, Wizards, Bulls, Raptors, Thunder, Grizzlies, Nets and Blazers twice), the club could still be riding high at 35-13 -- a record that would be hard for Toronto, Washington and Chicago to replicate.
Which brings us to this: The NBA schedule is a lot about when you play someone -- not necessarily who. But for a franchise that's hell-bent on being taken seriously during the postseason, it's imperative for the Hawks to perfect run-and-hide mode over the next 45 days, as a means of creating enough insurmountable separation from the Nets, Heat and Cavaliers.
And barring major injury to LeBron -- something well beyond "knee soreness" -- you know Cleveland will be in sync for the playoffs.
