Hawks reserves pounded a healthy Cavaliers team

The Cleveland Cavaliers are healthy, top-to-bottom. They’ve got a trio of All-Stars headlined by the best player in the world in LeBron James. They’ve got the best record in the Eastern Conference and are the favorites to repeat as Eastern Conference champions to make a third consecutive NBA Finals appearance.

But that didn’t scare off a depleted Atlanta Hawks team on the second game of a back-to-back.

The Hawks rested Dwight Howard and Paul Millsap and lost Dennis Schroder (right foot sprain), Kent Bazemore (right knee bruise), and Thabo Sefolosha (groin strain) to injury. But Atlanta eradicated Cleveland, 114-100, on Friday night with a starting lineup whose most recognizable name was Tim Hardaway Jr.

Hardaway Jr. torched the Cavaliers for 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including four-of-nine on threes. He scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, pushing Atlanta on a 21-2 run that gutted Cleveland down the stretch.

Mike Dunleavy, who the Cavaliers traded to the Hawks for Kyle Korver, came off the bench and pelted Cleveland for 20 points on four-of-five three-point shooting. Four other Hawks players also scored in double figures.

This is a Cavaliers allegedly angling to make a championship run this season. But Cleveland just got exposed by a group of role players who, give credit to them, merely out-scrapped, out-hustled and out-played the defending champs.

They allowed a group of five players without a recognizable name (sorry Kris Humphries) to run up 114 points on them.

LeBron James put up 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting. He dished out seven assists, grabbed eight rebounds and helped steady his Cavaliers when Atlanta made multiple runs throughout the game. Cleveland got 21 points off of its bench, as well, but Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love only combined for 33 points—that’s not enough for a Cavs team that has to outscore opponents given its porous defense.

This won’t do. And LeBron probably knows it.