The Cleveland Cavaliers have been incredible to begin the 2024-25 season, but even the best of teams cannot go 82-0, or 81-1 for that matter. On Wednesday night, the Cavs suffered just their second loss of the season in 19 tries, with the Atlanta Hawks coming in to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse and snatching their chain, 135-124.
It was simply a bad night from the Cavs, particularly on defense. They allowed the Hawks to pass the ball around and rack up 39 assists on 46 made field-goals on the night, with 20 of those 46 field-goal makes coming from beyond the arc. Winning the mathematical battle as well as the battle on the boards has been the Cavs’ blueprint for success thus far this year, but they lost out on both on Wednesday night.
But for head coach Kenny Atkinson, the worst thing the Cavs can do is overreact. They have been an excellent team through the first 18 games of the season, and one bad performance does not change that — even though it is a bit of a shame that they fell flat on their faces at home, no less.
“We haven’t had a stinker yet this year. That was a stinker. It happens in the NBA. It’s unfortunate it happened in front of our home crowd, but we kind of deserved what we got tonight,” Atkinson said, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
This loss was not one that came from bad officiating or a lopsided free-throw margin; in fact, the Cavs even took more free throws than the Hawks did. They were simply outplayed, and kudos to Atkinson for admitting their faults where it’s due.
The first step to fixing the problem is acknowledging that there is indeed a problem. Admitting that this loss to the Hawks was a stinker should remind Cavs of the standards they must uphold moving forward if they were to contend for a championship.
Cavs need to get back on track on Friday
At the very least, the Cavs will have a big chip on their shoulder for their next game on Friday, which will come against the Hawks. That will be an NBA Cup game that could go a long way towards determining which team advances to the quarterfinals of the competition.
The Cavs can at least tell themselves that the Hawks are due some shooting regression after making 48 percent of their 46 three-point attempts on Wednesday. But they better take Atlanta out of its rhythm from the jump, as allowing them to stay deep into the game allowed them to pull away late in the fourth quarter.
