Hawks at Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers finished second to the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference during the 2014-15 regular season but had little trouble sweeping them in the Eastern Conference finals last spring. The Hawks will try to get some revenge when they visit the Cavaliers for the first regular-season meeting between the clubs of 2015-16.
This time it’s Cleveland sitting atop the standings in the East after snapping a two-game slide with a 115-100 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday. The Cavaliers breezed through Atlanta last spring, winning the first two games on the road before taking Game 3 in overtime and smashing the Hawks 118-88 in Game 4 to clinch it. Atlanta is having some early difficulty finding the free-flowing offense that defined the team last season and averaged 92.3 points during a three-game slide before pulling out of the funk with a 103-97 win over Sacramento on Wednesday despite missing the starting backcourt. Jeff Teague (ankle) and Kent Bazemore (ankle) are both day-to-day.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN South (Atlanta), FSN Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE HAWKS (9-5): Atlanta lost small forward DeMarre Carroll – its best defensive option against Cleveland star LeBron James – to free agency and has been experimenting with Paul Millsap at the No. 3 spot in bigger lineups and Kyle Korver or Bazemore sliding over in smaller sets with Teague in the backcourt. The Hawks left Millsap at the power forward spot on Wednesday and he responded with 23 points and 16 rebounds in the win, matching his season high on the boards. Dennis Schroder added 22 points after struggling to 6-of-21 in the previous two games while starting in place of Teague.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (9-3): One of the non-James stars for Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals last season was backup point guard Matthew Dellavedova, who scored in double figures in each of the final three games of that series. Dellavedova found himself with a big role again on Thursday due to an injury to Mo Williams (ankle), and responded with a career-high 13 assists and figures to see plenty of playing time again on Saturday with Williams sitting out again. The Cavaliers are 6-0 at home and have won 25 of the last 26 regular-season games in their own building.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hawks C Al Horford is averaging 3.7 rebounds in the last three games and grabbed only one in 32 minutes on Wednesday.
2. Cleveland C Timofey Mozgov left Thursday’s game with a shoulder injury and will miss approximately two weeks.
3. Atlanta took the final three regular-season meetings between the teams last season.