Cavaliers wrap up East, grab win #60 by beating Hawks

by John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) on Apr 3, 2010 3:47 AM CDT

The Atlanta Hawks may have closed the gap, but they still cannot beat the Cavaliers. LeBron James scored 27 points, including 9 points during a 14-0 Cavalier run in the 4th Quarter to lead the Cavaliers to a 93-88 win over the Hawks. It was the 9th straight time the Cavaliers have beaten the current #3 seed in the East, including a 4-game sweep in the 2nd Round of last year's playoffs.

The win was special for a couple of other reasons - coupled with Orlando's loss to San Antonio the Cavaliers have clinched the best record in the East - and the home-court that goes along with it. It was also win #60 for Cleveland, making the Cavaliers the 9th team in NBA history to win 60 games in back-to-back seasons.

"Our goals are huge much bigger than winning 60 games or clinching home court or anything like that," James said. "But you can't take something like that for granted. When those goals happen, you embrace it."

Atlanta has proved to be a feisty bunch this season, extending the Cavaliers in all three meetings thus far. The Cavs beat Atlanta by 9 in Phillips Arena on December 29th, and by 5 at The Q on December 30th. Game #3 was much the same with the Cavaliers unable to shake the Hawks until the 4th Quarter when Cleveland seemed to make all the plays they needed to in order to get the win.

With Antawn Jamison on the bench after suffering a shoulder stinger in the 4th quarter, Mo Williams picked up the offensive slack scoring 24 points - 5 during the decisive spurt. Williams also had 4 blocks for the Cavaliers and was able to shake off a recent shooting drought by going 7-14. Williams has struggled to find his nitch since the arrival of Jamison, but returned to his role as LeBron's sidekick.

"Our guys did a great job of bringing the juice," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "They brought energy, effort and focus."

The most impressive thing about the Cavaliers run this season - as compared to last year's 66-win team - is the adversity they have overcome to get there. Injuries, trades, new face - none of them have stopped the Cavaliers. They are now 15-2 since losing Shaq, and 3-0 without Anderson Varejao who sat out the game with a sore hamstring. Mutiple games without Mo Williams, Delonte West, Zydrunas Ilgauskas haven't stopped the Cavs either.

The final hurdle - at least during the regular season - comes with the next victory or Lakers loss. That would clinch the NBA's best record for the 2nd straight season and home court througout the playoffs and NBA Finals. The Cavaliers accomplished the same feat last year but couldn't take advantage. This year seems different. The Cavaliers may not win as many games, but they are a better team - built to win in May and June.

The first steps are completed. The rest - and best - is yet to come.

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hawks are pretenders, not contenders

i said this already in a similar forum at theclevelandfan.com but in my opinion the hawks give off this false impression that they are an elite team, when nothing could be further from the truth. after last night’s win, the cavs have now beaten atlanta 9 straight games including the 4-game sweep last year in the playoffs and as a result, i just can’t consider them on the same elite level as the cavs, magic and lakers. although they did sweep the celtics this season and had just beat the lakers in their previous game, i still feel they’re just a notch below truly being considered elite. they do have a decent starting 5 with al horford, joe johnson, josh smith, marvin williams and mike bibby and certainly upgraded their bench this year with the acquisition of usual cav-killer jamal crawford, but they are still no where near as talented as the cavs, lakers and magic. they just seem to remind me an awful lot of the mark price-brad daugherty-larry nance cavs’ teams of the late 80’s and early 90’s that were good enough to win somewhere between 40-50+ games a year and a few playoff games, but they were always lacking that one true superstar that would have put them over the hump for actually winning a championship. that’s why michael jordan always killed them because the cavs (and every other team for that matter) had nobody else like him to offset his presence. now the shoe is on the other foot and it’s the cavs who have the top superstar while other teams are the ones who are lacking. yes joe johnson is close to being a superstar, but he is still just a notch or two below guys like lebron, kobe, d-wade, dwight howard, carmelo anthony, kevin durant, et al. i can certainly see atlanta winning their first round match-up again this year, but once they go up against either the cavs or the magic in the 2nd round, they will be done and that’s just a fact.

by davemanddd on Apr 3, 2010 8:48 PM CDT reply actions

good game cavs

i’d expect cleveland to win when the hawks couldn’t put points on the board the past few fourth quarters. Make no mistake, if the city of Cleveland wants to win the title for the first time EVER it will be put to the test in a few weeks. Nobody’s crowned yet

Atlanta will win a championship....someday

by maxxj3 on Apr 4, 2010 3:27 PM CDT up reply actions