CAVS DEFEAT HAWKS FOR 8TH STRAIGHT VICTORY

There may not be a more improved team in the NBA this year than the Atlanta Hawks.  The perennial laughing stocks currently hold the #4 position in the Eastern Conference and have made their Phillips Arena home court a tough destination for visiting teams.  On Saturday, however, the learned that they’ve got a ways to go before they can go into the home arena of the league’s best team and leave with a victory as the Cleveland Cavaliers opened up a big lead early before coasting to a 102-96 win.  With the victory, Cleveland improved their home record to 32-1 and opened up a 4 game advantage in the Eastern Conference over second place Boston.

The Cavs came out firing on all cylinders, opening up a 27-13 lead after one quarter and stretching that advantage to 40-16 midway through the second.  Atlanta did manage to make things a little too close for comfort against the Cavs reserves in the fourth, but were unable to draw closer than the six point final margin of victory.  Cleveland has now won eight straight and 17 of their last 19 overall.  After the game, LeBron James suggested that his team made an effort to come out and demonstrate that their home dominance was no fluke:

"That's what we wanted to do. We wanted to first protect home court like we've been able to do. We had a lot of energy."

Cleveland was led by Mo Williams’ 24 points, while LeBron scored 22 points and added 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a blocked shot in a typically impressive all around performance.  Zydrunas Ilgauskas contributed 16 points and in the process passed the 10,000 point mark for his career.  After the game, Ilgauskas commented on the achievement earned despite a career long struggle with injuries:

"Obviously, if I had not missed so many years because of injuries, I would have had more points. I consider myself lucky to still be playing basketball so I'll take this one and not ask for too much."

Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 24 points, with reserve Ronald Murray contributing 22 off the bench.  Maurice Evans added 15 and Mike Bibby 14.  After the game, Bibby said that the Cavs hot start put his team at an insurmountable disadvantage:

"They jumped on us early.  We weren't hitting our shots and they were just running the ball down our throat. They were doing what they wanted with us. They had a lot of layups at the beginning. We got down early and that's what killed us."

Cleveland will try to keep the winning streak alive as they play their next three games against teams with losing records, starting with a ‘home and home’ series against the New Jersey Nets.  Cleveland will play at New Jersey on Sunday night, with a return date in Cleveland on Wednesday.  They’ll then host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.  Atlanta will return to the Phillips Arena for their next three games, starting with Minnesota on Monday night.  The competition will get significantly better in their next two games, with San Antonio and Boston providing the opposition on Wednesday and Friday.