All Hawks

Atlanta Hawks Beat Cleveland Cavaliers 131-107

The Hawks are now 40-37.
Pat Benson|
Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

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Atlanta HawksCleveland Cavaliers

Summary

With 80 seconds remaining in the first half, the Hawks were rolling. Trae Young had 15 points in 16 minutes of action and was barrelling towards the basket when he went down with a groin injury. All of Atlanta held its breath for about twenty minutes.

The basketball gods smiled on Young as he was able to return for the start of the third quarter. The future First Team All-NBA point guard (I'm speaking it into existence) finished the game with 30 points and 9 assists.

Kevin Huerter continued his red-hot shooting, hitting 5-6 threes and tallying 23 points. On the flip side, De'Andre Hunter returned from injury and looked quite rusty. Hunter shot 2-10 and scored 5 points.

The Cavaliers have now lost five of their last six games. After such a hot start to the season, injuries have killed their postseason seeding. They can't get Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley back soon enough.

Now the Hawks have one day off before they host the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night. It's going to be a monumental game for the Play-In Tournament seeding, and let us not forget it's Quavo's birthday party. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's AllHawks.com for breaking news, highlights, and analysis.

Post-Game Interviews

After clinching a spot in the Play-In Tournament, Hawks head coach Nate McMillan said, "We talked about that before the game. That this was a really big game in the sense that Cleveland was three games ahead of us. And we had an opportunity to clinch that spot being in the top ten." 

McMillan continued, "We also have a chance to move up in these remaining games. Our approach has to be such that we come out and take care of business, establish ourselves right from the start defensively. And I thought we did that." 

Trae Young took to the podium in a cream hoodie and relaxed demeanor. Young confirmed it was his groin. "It's been hurting these past couple of weeks. Just took a wrong step and it *snaps fingers* kind of shocked me for a second and it hurt for a second."

The Hawks next game is Saturday night against the Brooklyn Nets at home. As always, we will have plenty of content for you between now and tip-off. Stay tuned to Sports Illustrated's AllHawks.com for breaking news, highlights, and analysis.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Caris Lavert wears a pair of Air Jordan 36.

Before the game, Trae Young was awarded the Jason Collier Memorial Trophy.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland put together an inefficient offensive performance on Thursday night.

Cleveland Cavaliers Lauri Markkanen was no match for the Atlanta Hawks frontcourt.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love wasn't able to heat up against the Atlanta Hawks the way he had in previous games.

Stats

Hawks Leaders

Trae Young - 30 PTS, 9 AST

Kevin Huerter - 23 PTS, 2 REB

Onyeka Okongwu - 17 PTS, 12 REB

Cavaliers Leaders

Cedi Osman - 21 PTS, 6 REB

Darius Garland - 18 PTS, 8 REB

Moses Brown - 15 PTS, 13 REB

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Published
Pat Benson
PAT BENSON

Pat Benson covers the Atlanta Hawks for Sports Illustrated's All Hawks. He has covered the NBA for several years and is the author of "Kobe Bryant's Sneaker History (1996-2020)".

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