The Cleveland Cavaliers make their first trip to play the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, with both teams trying to recalibrate after having their two-game winning streaks broken earlier this week.
This is the second of four meetings between the teams. The Cavaliers won 117-109 on Nov. 2 in Cleveland. The Cavs won two of the three games last year, but the Hawks have a two-game winning streak in the series at home.
The Hawks are coming off a 132-113 loss on Tuesday to a Washington Wizards team that had lost 14 straight games. It broke a two-game winning streak and was the team’s worst loss since falling 138-118 to Toronto in the season opener. Atlanta has won seven of its last 10.
The Cavaliers lost a 110-99 decision to Toronto on Monday. Cleveland has won four of its last six.
The Cavs played without six regulars on Monday: Darius Garland (toe), Jarrett Allen (finger), De’Andre Hunter (rest), Sam Merrill (right hand sprain), Dean Wade (knee) and Craig Porter Jr. (left hamstring strain). Hunter should play Friday against his former team and others are day-to-day.
“Your standard is your competition level and I thought we competed,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I liked our spirit and I liked how we competed.”
Atkinson was especially complimentary of reserve Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who played nearly 32 minutes and finished with 14 points and four rebounds. He is averaging 7.1 points and 2.8 rebounds and could be in line to get more minutes.
“You can’t take him off the floor,” Atkinson said. “He can defend his position, he has great energy, he can get back in transition, can do damage in offensive transition. That guy is going to help us win big games. I feel like he belongs. Even with our starters out there, he belongs with those guys.”
Cleveland is led by Donovan Mitchell, who averages 29.9 points, and Evan Mobley, who averages 18.7 points and 8.7 rebounds. Mitchell has averaged 25.7 points in 18 career games against Atlanta.
The Hawks have survived without All-Star guard Trae Young, who is still sidelined with a sprained right MCL.
Jalen Johnson has taken over a leadership role and is averaging 21.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and seven assists. His streak of games with at least 16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and one steal, the longest in the league this season, ended at eight on Tuesday.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker averages 18.6 points and has scored 20-plus points seven times, the most such games in a single season in his career. He is averaging 21.5 points over the last six games.
Atlanta players agreed they must quickly forget the disappointing outcome against Washington, which helped lead to their elimination from the NBA Cup.
“So just kind of flush it off and focus on the next one and just do what we do next time,” Atlanta’s Mouhamed Gueye said. “We play defense — we pride ourselves on that — just from the jump. Just show them we’re here.”
Dyson Daniels said, “We’ve got to learn from this. But we’ve got to scrap it quick and move on to the next one.”
