For three quarters, the Cleveland Cavaliers(14-24) played some fairly decent basketball and trailed by three points entering the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Hawks(19-20) on Sunday night.
However, there are four quarters in a game, and the Cavaliers were outscored by 15 points in the final period and would fall to the Hawks on the road 100-82.
Atlanta’s John Collins had a game-high 22 points and 13 rebounds, Danilo Gallinari poured in 20 points, and Nathan Knight added 16 points off the bench. Collin Sexton led the way for Cleveland with 15 points.
Before the start of the fourth quarter, Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff thought his team needed to fight hard to get the win on Sunday night, which did not happen.
“We talked about it at the third quarter break,” Bickerstaff said. “The team that found that scrap and that grit was going to be the team that won the game, and I thought they out-scrapped us in the fourth quarter, for sure.”
Cleveland had won four out of five games before the break. According to Bickerstaff, the Cavaliers, who have lost two straight after the All-Star break, have to get their rhythm back.
“We’ve lost our rhythm, clearly over the break,” he said. “Some of the grit and some of the toughness that we were playing with before the break, we need to rediscover here quickly because I thought there were so many moments where we were outplayed and outworked.”
Darius Garland, who made his return after missing the last two games due to a groin injury, and scored 11 points for Cleveland, added: “We just gotta get out of that little All-Star break funk.”
Before the break, Cleveland seemed to have found a rhythm with Dean Wade as the starter at power forward. After the break, with Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr’s return, the team has lost its rhythm. Unfortunately, the break came at the wrong team for this team, and trying to integrate Love and Nance Jr. has been an issue for Cleveland, but they have to find their way, and it does not get any easier as they travel to Miami to battle the Heat on Tuesday night, who have won 10 of their last 11, including four straight.
Notes:
Love played in his second game with the team on Sunday after missing 33 games with a calf injury but left after two minutes of action. According to the team, Love didn’t feel right after a couple of trips down the floor and didn’t want to risk a setback.
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