Cavaliers 94, Hawks 82
ATLANTA -- No Kevin Love. No Kyrie Irving. No problem.
LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are rolling in the Eastern Conference Finals.
James scored 30 points to fuel a 94-82 rout of the crumbling Atlanta Hawks on Friday night in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals at Philips Arena.
Cleveland heads home with a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 3 is Sunday in Quicken Loans Arena.
Atlanta forward DeMarre Carroll, who suffered a scary knee injury late in the fourth quarter of Game 1, started and played 34 minutes. That was the only good news for the Hawks, who saw both forward Al Horford and guard Kyle Korver go down with injuries in the second half.
Horford was able to return, but Korver was not with a sprained ankle.
Cleveland has had its share of injuries. They lost Love, their versatile forward, for the season to a shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs. Irving has been battling knee and ankle injuries and was held out after visiting Dr. James Andrews.
The Cavs haven't missed a beat against the Hawks, though.
Guard Iman Shumpert scored 16 points, including four 3-pointers. James, who is looking for his fifth straight trip to the Finals, dished out 11 assists and grabbed nine rebounds to go along with his game-high 30 points.
Forced to double-team James, the Hawks surrendered an abundance of open 3-point looks. The Cavs capitalized, connecting on 12 of 29 3-pointers. Shumpert followed a Matthew Delladova 3-pointer with consecutive triples to push the Cavs lead to 65-54 early in the third quarter.
The lead ballooned to 19 on a James spinning layup that was part of an 18-4 Cleveland run. Atlanta had no answer and trailed 84-66 at the end of the third quarter.
The Cavaliers controlled the first half and took a 54-49 lead into halftime.
It felt like it could have been much more. Every time the Hawks made a run, the Cavs answered.
Forward James Jones came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers in the first half and Shumpert made run-killing triples in the first half. Cleveland hit 7 of 11 3-point attempts in the first half and shot 53 percent from the floor overall.
Without a superstar capable of taking over, the Hawks need contributions from all their key players. That hasn’t happened in Game 1 or 2. All-Star forward Paul Millsap has struggled to make an impact, and with Carroll ailing, the Atlanta offense hasn't clicked.
Millsap led the team in scoring and rebounding in the regular season but was limited to four points.
While Cleveland stayed hot from the 3-point line, Atlanta struggled for the second straight game. After going 4 of 23 on 3s in Game 1, the Hawks made just 6 of 26 3-pointers in Game 2.
Backup point guard Dennis Schroder led the Hawks with 13 points. Horford, Korver and point guard Jeff Teague each finished with 12.
NOTES: Cavs PG Kyrie Irving was ruled out roughly 90 minutes before the game due to tendinitis in his left knee. Irving had his left knee checked out by Dr. James Andrews, the team announced Friday. Irving is listed as questionable for Game 3 on Sunday in Cleveland. Backup PG Matthew Dellavedova replaced Irving in the starting lineup. ... The Hawks waited until just minutes before the game to announce F DeMarre Carroll (knee sprain) would start. Carroll injured his left knee late in the fourth quarter of Game 1 and had to be helped off the floor. An MRI on Thursday revealed no structural damage, and the unrestricted free agent-to-be gave it a go. ... NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was in attendance at Philips Arena. ... Referees were Joe Crawford, Mike Callahan and Bill Spooner.