NBA Scores 2015: Hawks remind Cavaliers who’s best in East, plus 3 other things we learned Friday

The Atlanta Hawks used a team effort -- what else is new? -- to shut down LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, plus three other things we learned Friday.

by Liam Boylan-Pett

Mar 7, 2015, 1:00 PM UTC

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

With just over five minutes to play and the Cleveland Cavaliers trailing the Atlanta Hawks by 10, LeBron James drove at Paul Millsap. James was supposed to score and lead his Cavaliers to a comeback victory. Instead, Millsap picked James' pocket and found Mike Scott for a transition dunk. And that was it, the Hawks beat the Cavaliers convincingly, 106-97, winning yet another high-stakes, tension-filled game.

The Cavaliers came into the game having won 20 of 24 games. That was child's play to the Hawks, who have won 28 of 32, including six in a row. At 49-12, they have the top record in the East by 11 games. The Cavaliers are now 39-25, just a half-game back of the Chicago Bulls for the second seed in the conference. The game had the feel of a playoff matchup, and it's very possible these two teams will battle it out in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Hawks jumped out to a 36-19 lead after one quarter, having their way against a lackluster Cleveland defense. The lane was wide open for Al Horford and Millsap, who had 13 and 10 points respectively in the first half, and Jeff Teague was splitting traps with ease. It looked eerily similar to the San Antonio Spurs slicing up the Miami Heat in last year's NBA Finals. But unlike the Heat, the Cavaliers answered.

They clogged the lane in the second quarter and clawed their way back into the game even though James was having an off night. He shot just 1-of-7 in the first half and had only five points. He did have six assists, though, and the Hawks cooled down. Cleveland shrunk the Hawks’ lead to 10 at the half.

The Cavaliers outscored the Hawks 36-28 in the third quarter to jump to within two. But the fourth quarter looked a lot like the first: The Hawks were too much for Cleveland -- especially when their three-point shots started to fall. Atlanta went on a 16-4 run in the first five minutes of the fourth, and the Cavaliers couldn’t climb back again.

Horford led six Hawks in double figures with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Millsap had 16 points and eight rebounds and Dennis Schroeder came off the bench to have a huge night, scoring 15 points and dishing out eight assists.

James finished with 18 points, eight assists and nine turnovers, and none of the other Cavaliers stepped up. Kyrie Irving had 20 points and Kevin Love had 14, but neither were effective for long stretches on an off night for James.

For the Hawks, they continue to win games with Spurs-like efforts. Plus, they could have played better against Cleveland. They were 6-of-21 from deep, just 28.6 percent. This year, they’re making 38.1 percent of their three-point attempts.

Atlanta is 29-4 at home, inching closer and closer to clinching the top seed in the East, and home-court advantage will be nice in the playoffs, especially if they’re facing the Cavaliers with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line.

3 other things we learned

The Golden State Warriors are still the team to beat in the West. Just like the Hawks in the East, the Warriors showed the Western Conference that they're going to be very tough to beat as they dominated the Dallas Mavericks, 104-89, on Friday. Draymond Green was spectacular for Golden State. Not only did he have 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists, but he was a menace on the defensive side of the court, helping to hold Dirk Nowitzki to 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting. Stephen Curry had 22 points and seven assists and Klay Thompson added 16 for the Warriors, who outplayed the Mavericks from the opening tip. At 48-12, they're 4.5 games up on the Memphis Grizzlies for the top seed in the West. At 40-24, the Mavericks have the sixth-best record in the West. Even without Chandler Parsons, they have a ways to go -- they were overmatched by the better team Friday.

The New Orleans Pelicans struggle against the East. A win against the Boston Celtics would have put the Pelicans into a tie with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the eighth playoff spot in the West. Instead, they lost at home game to the 25-35 Celtics, 104-98, to fall to 33-29, a game out of the playoffs. The loss dropped New Orleans to 13-14 against the East. Anthony Davis was superb as usual with 29 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks (plus the absurd play of the night below), but it wasn't enough agains the pesky Celtics, who were led by 27 points from Isaiah Thomas. The Phoenix Suns, meanwhile, picked up a win over the Brooklyn Nets to climb to within a game of the Pelicans, and two back of the Thunder.

The Eastern Conference playoff picture is very, very crowded. Five teams are fighting for the final two playoff spots in the East -- six if you count the free-falling Detroit Pistons -- and it looks like the battle is going to be tight for the remainder of the season. The Charlotte Hornets beat the Toronto Raptors thanks to 23 points and 13 rebounds from Al Jefferson. Solomon Hill and Ian Mahinmi led the Indiana Pacers to a win over the Chicago Bulls. The Heat lost to the Washington Wizards by two after trailing by as many as 35 -- the Wizards woes continued even in a win, they've lost 12 of their last 16. And as mentioned above, the Celtics won and the Nets lost. If the season ended today, the Hornets (27-33) and Pacers (27-34) would be the last two teams in the playoffs. But the Heat (27-34), Nets (25-35) and Celtics (25-35) are all within striking distance. Each of these teams will likely get handled by the Hawks or Cavaliers in the first round, but the battle to get their should be fun to watch.

Play of the night

Anthony Davis shouldn't be able to surprise us anymore. He's done too many ridiculous things for an alley-oop to be impressive. But then he goes and grabs an alley-oop that's impossible to reach and somehow slams it home over a helpless Tyler Zeller making it seem like anything really is possible. It's unfortunate for the Pelicans that they lost to the Celtics, but Davis remains must-see TV.