CLEVELAND: The week off didn’t hurt the Cavaliers, but another second-half lull nearly cost them.
LeBron James scored 25 points and came up with two big steals late as the Cavs continued their dominance over the Atlanta Hawks with a 104-93 victory Monday night to take a 1-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
It was the eighth consecutive victory for the Cavs over the Hawks after sweeping them in the conference finals last year and winning all three meetings in the regular season, but it didn’t come easily.
A dunk by James with 3:56 left in the third put the Cavs ahead 72-54 before the Hawks roared back, scoring 11 straight points and closing the third by scoring 16 of the last 18 to pull within 74-70 at the start of the fourth.
“I thought the way our guys competed for the whole night was what we need,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Going forward I think we can play better.”
Al Horford’s dunk with eight minutes left gave the Hawks their first lead of the night at 80-79, but Kyrie Irving countered with a corner 3-pointer — his first basket since early in the second quarter. There were four lead changes and three ties within the final eight frenetic minutes.
The Cavs pulled away for good when James stole the ball away from Dennis Schroder with the Cavs clinging to a 92-88 lead and 3:11 left. They needed three cracks at the offensive end, thanks to two huge offensive rebounds, before James converted with a three-point play to extend the lead to 95-88 with 2:09 left.
It marked James’ first basket of the fourth quarter. He finished with nine assists and seven rebounds.
“I just like how our guys come together when things get tough now,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “That’s the biggest thing for us. We’ve got a great team. When things get tough, we have to come together even more.”
Irving had 21 points and eight assists and Kevin Love had 17 points and 11 rebounds despite a tough 4-of-17 shooting night. Tristan Thompson had 14 rebounds for the Cavs, who improved to 9-0 all-time against the Hawks in the postseason.
Schroder scored a career playoff high 27 points for the Hawks, who went more than four minutes late in the game without a field goal as the Cavs pulled away.
Paul Millsap had 17 points and 13 rebounds and Kent Bazemore had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks.
The Cavs again held down the Hawks’ starting backcourt of Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver. Teague shot just 2-of-9 and Korver was held to just one shot attempt — which he missed.
Korver’s deadly 3-point shooting has been neutralized by the Cavs for two years now by running multiple defenders at him. The trade-off is what they gave up to Schroder.
“They don’t leave Kyle anywhere,” Budenholzer said. “They’ll send two people at him, three people at him and leave other guys with opportunities. Jeff had an off night. Some of his looks, some of his attacks we feel good about.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.