Cleveland Cavaliers @ Atlanta Hawks
Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 7:30 PM ET
State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA | Game ID: 22300595
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
ATL 20 25 25 25 95CLE 25 34 34 23 116
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Cavs extend NBA's longest win streak to seven with balanced 116-95 win over Hawks
ATLANTA -- — Donovan Mitchell had 18 points and eight assists to lead a balanced attack as the Cleveland Cavaliers extended the NBA's longest current win streak to seven games with a 116-95 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.
Jarrett Allen had 14 points and 11 rebounds, while seven Cavaliers scored in double figures. Sam Merrill had 18 points with five 3-pointers. Dean Wade scored 17 and Georges Niang had 14.
The Cavs scored the first 10 points of the game and never trailed in holding the Hawks to a season-low in points and beating Atlanta for the third time in three games this season.
“If you come out and set the tone defensively, and let them know it is not going to be easy, you can put yourself in position where they are chasing you all night,” said Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “In the NBA, runs happen, but you’d rather be playing from in front than trying to play back into the game.”
Cleveland led 15-4 midway through the first quarter against the NBA's fourth-highest scoring team.
“We have an intent and purpose to start basketball games. It is a complete buy-in to be elite defensively,” Bickerstaff said. “You are doing something special if you are containing a team like that in the first quarter.”
Cleveland extended a 14-point halftime lead by outscoring the Hawks 34-25 in the third quarter. Atlanta ranks near the bottom of the league in third-quarter net rating.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Hawks.
“We’ve been mercurial. We’ve had moments we’ve found things that are successful in games and we’ve gotten away from them,” said Hawks coach Quin Snyder. “We were a different team in the three games previous than we were tonight.”
The Hawks did not return from a road game at Miami until 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
Trae Young left the game with 8:43 remaining after taking a charge from Isaac Okoro . Young was hit in the face by an inadvertent elbow, stayed on the court for a few minutes and walked back to the locker room with the Hawks trailing by 25. He did not return after scoring 15 points.
Young was questionable with an illness a night after sitting out the Hawks’ win over the Heat.
Dejounte Murray , who hit last-second, game-winning shots for the Hawks in their previous two games, led Atlanta with 24 points. He also had nine rebounds and five assists. Jalen Johnson added 20 points and seven rebounds.
The Cavaliers improved to 12-3 since starters Darius Garland and Evan Mobley were both injured. Against the Hawks, guard Caris LaVert (16 ppg) missed the game with a score wrist.
Cleveland's Pete Nance, whose father, Larry Nance Sr., starred for the Cavaliers, made his NBA debut in the final two minutes. He did not score.
UP NEXT
Cavaliers: Visit the Magic on Monday night in the second game of a four-game road trip.
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
CLECP C. Porter Jr.
DM D. Mitchell
DW D. Wade
GN G. Niang
IO I. Okoro
JA J. Allen
MS M. Strus
PN P. Nance
SM S. Merrill
TT T. Thompson
ATLAG A. Griffin
BB B. Bogdanović
BF B. Fernando
BO Bogdanovic
CC C. Capela
DM D. Murray
GM G. Mathews
JJ J. Johnson
OO O. Okongwu
PM P. Mills
SB S. Bey
SL S. Lundy
TF T. Forrest
TY T. Young
CLE/ATL the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur