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Cavs down Hawks, remain perfect at home

Nov 23, 2008 - 4:33 AM By Jeff Brewer PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- The weary Atlanta Hawks were no match for the rested Cleveland Cavaliers.

LeBron James scored 24 points and the Cavaliers led wire-to-wire and easily disposed of the Hawks, 110-96 on Saturday.

Cleveland improved to 7-0 at home and was not about to lose two in a row, having had their eight-game win streak snapped on Wednesday at Detroit.

"We wanted to be aggressive against (Atlanta's leading scorer) Joe Johnson," James said. "We came out and we dominated."

The Hawks had beaten Charlotte on Friday 88-83 and were without high-flying forward Josh Smith for a ninth straight game.

James scored 11 of his points in the fourth quarter and added seven rebounds and eight assists. Mo Williams added 23 points, while Delonte West, who came into the game eighth in the league in 3-point shooting at 51 percent, had another stellar game with 19 points, five assists and a solid defensive effort on Johnson.

Asked about defending the 25-points-per-game scorer, West said, "It's just attitude, not tonight."

The Hawks (8-5), now 4-4 on the road, got 41 points off the bench from Maurice Evans (21) and Acie Law (20). After scoring 30 points against Charlotte, Johnson was limited to 1-of-8 from the floor and four points.

"Delonte has stuck his nose in there defensively the last three games," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. "He's had to guard Vince Carter, Rip Hamilton, and Joe Johnson tonight."

The Cavaliers cracked 100 points for the eighth time in 13 outings.

Cleveland jumped out to early leads of 9-0, 15-2, and led 28-12 after one quarter. West continued his hot hand with nine points in the quarter on 4-of-5 shooting.

"We just couldn't make any shots," Johnson said. "I was trying to spread the ball around and open up the court, but it was just a tough night."

Atlanta shot 13-of-39 in the first half and trailed 49-32. Atlanta had no fastbreak points in the first two quarters.

"You could tell we played last night, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse because everybody in the league has back-to-back games," Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said.

Cleveland shot 51 percent in the first half and led by as many as 23 points. The Hawks got to within 12 late in the second quarter before the Cavaliers scored the last five points of the half.

The Cavs scored the first two hoops of the second half and led by at least 20 points throughout the third quarter, taking a 79-58 lead into the fourth quarter.

James had two crowd-pleasing, alley-oop dunks in the third.

Just when it appeared the Hawks might make a late run, slicing their deficit to 79-64, Williams hit back-to-back driving hoops to give Cleveland an 83-64 led with 10:05 left.

After Atlanta's 5-0 run to get to within 83-69, James went off, scoring Cleveland's next nine points to effectively seal the game.

James punctuated his night with a right-handed power jam over two defenders.

West had some advice for opponents, trying to stop James once he leaves the floor: "Don't try to be a hero, get out of the way."