Cavaliers suffer epic meltdown vs. Hawks, lose control of No

Cleveland is clearly not especially concerned with taking the top seed in the Eastern Conference, as they sit a full game behind the Boston Celtics and are closing out the regular season by resting their stars. “To beat Boston and have the game that we had and to come back and not validate it against a team that didn’t even play their guys”.

The Cavs wasted a 26-point lead going into the fourth at Atlanta on Sunday, and an 11-pointer in the final 12 minutes of regulation of this one. He limped off the floor in the third on Friday and returned to play in the fourth, but he had some issues flare up before the game. “I just think it’s fantastic”, coach Kenny Atkinson said.

“We have to figure that out”, he added after a win which lifted Washington to 48-31, level with Toronto, who had a rest day on Thursday. That’s who we are.

“To me, it’s never been about trying to get the No. 1 seed”.

The Hawks are now 3-1 against the Cavs this season. “I thought maybe our guys could’ve got exhausted because we didn’t push the ball in the fourth quarter”.

In overtime, the Cavs got up by five.

It appears that the Celtics’ brief stay at No. 1 in the Eastern Conference seeding fooled some people into believing they actually belonged there ahead of Cleveland, that they were actually capable of challenging for a trip to the NBA Finals.

This is a nice bounce-back spot for the Cavaliers and they will have a low Vegas number to get over. “That’s the most frustrating, most disturbing and it sucks”.

LeBron James has had another great season, averaging 26.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game this year.

James said he wasn’t concerned with the possibility of going into the post-season seeded behind Boston. “I have no idea why, but it was just low”. It was easily one of Cleveland’s most complete games this season, and while James insisted it wasn’t meant to send an external message, Love felt the victory resonated inside Cleveland’s locker room.

“If we can take care of business like we’re supposed to, I think that we’d like LeBron and Kyrie to get some rest”, Lue said.

While not many will remember the outcome of this game a few weeks from now (assuming the Cavs don’t undergo an epic meltdown in the Playoffs), the bigger problem may involve All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving’s knee discomfort. Paul Millsap put up 22 points to go along with 9 rebounds after getting the night off against Cleveland on Friday.

“Yesterday was just a bad day for me and my knee”. They were literally just screaming at one another!

“It just, I don’t want it to feel sore anymore but it’s just the realization of it”.

Lue could have went with “sorry” to describe his team’s effort. Coach Tyronn Lue called it “just stupid“, and it was. “A lot of times guys are not picking that up”. “We needed it. We have to give our bench credit. We just didn’t do it”.

Tim Hardaway Jr. added 21 points to help Atlanta beat Cleveland for the second straight time, over three days. “They’re coming at us every single night, and we have to understand that – and we have to hit first”.

SALT LAKE CITY – Gordon Hayward scored a career-high 39 points and Utah overcame an 11-point deficit to beat Minnesota.