Joe Johnson scores 28 points to lead Atlanta Hawks to a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers: NBA Update
On the night when Kyrie Irving recorded his first career double-double with 19 points and 10 assists, Joe Johnson erupted with 28 points and guided the short-handed Atlanta Hawks to a 103-87 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at
the Quicken Loans Arena.
Jeff Teague dropped 18 points; Zaza Pachulia had a start and made it count with 9 points and 12 boards while Josh Smith had seven points, eight rebounds and nine assists as Atlanta recorded their sixth consecutive win over the
Cavs.
"It was very important for us to get off to a good start and sustain it (because of the injuries), especially on the road," Johnson said. "I just tried to take what the defense gave me."
Atlanta came into the game without their starting center Al Horford; power forwards Marvin Williams and Vladimir Radmanovic.
The Hawks were hot in the first half, finishing with 59 percent field shooting to carve out a 59-45 lead. They went cold early in the third, allowing the Cavaliers to close within 6, but then erupted with an 8-nothing run to put
the game to bed.
Alonzo Gee hammered a career tying 20 points and hauled down nine rebounds while Antawn Jamison had a 6-of-22 night for 17 points.
Johnson had 13 points in the first quarter alone, the last six of them coming in three pointers as the Hawks thundered away with a 31-19 advantage.
The hosts tried hard to close the bridge, but the Hawks were just relentless and kept coming back to take a 14 point lead into the break.
A 10-3 burst early in second half took their lead to as many as 19, 69-50, but the Cavs decided to fight back. Irving drove down the lane for a layup to start an 18-5 rally, the exclamation point to which was provided by layup
from Jamison with 47.7 seconds to go in the third.
Johnson scored two’s on side of the quarter break to put the Hawks back on the track and then followed with a layup to consolidate Atlanta’s advantage. The Cavs could never get within single figures after that.
Larry Drew, the Hawks coach was happy with the performance of his team;
"I thought we kept our composure when they did cut (into the lead). I tell the guys all the time, 'Good teams don't fragment in situations like that,' and we didn't. We withstood their run, we maintained our composure, stayed with
what we did, and came out with a win."
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