Live Thread: Cavs @ Hawks

It’s been good times rolling for the Cavs lately. Winners of nine straight, the Wine & Gold will look to extend their winning streak to double digits on the road against the Atlanta Hawks. Last outing versus the Hawks didn’t go so well, as the Cavs were handed one of their more embarrassing losses of the LeBron 2.0 era (which is saying something). On November 5th, the Hawks came into Cleveland losers of eight in a row, with seemingly half their roster out injured, and stunned the Cavs in a two-point loss for the home team. Ever since that fateful day, however, things have looked a lot different in The Land.

The Cavs followed up the heartburn-inducing “Mylanta in Atlanta” disaster with a big win over the up-and-coming Bucks and very narrow loss in Houston to arguably the best team of the 2017 season. Since then it’s been nothing but W’s for the Cavs. Interestingly, Cleveland hasn’t enjoyed a regular season winning streak this long since running off 12 straight in 2015. Defense has been the key, as the Cavs have been holding opponents to 99.8 points per game during the streak, which would be good for sixth overall in the NBA if extrapolated across the full season.

Will the Cavaliers take care of business and make it 10 straight? Or will focus issues creep back onto the court as Cleveland overlooks a bottom feeding squad? Atlanta has had a five-day break without basketball to contemplate a blowout loss to the Raptors, so expect the Hawks to come out guns a-blazin’. If the Cavs win, they’ll continue to be the hottest team in basketball as they soar up the Eastern Conference standings.

I’d put my money on a 10-point victory for the Wine & Gold tonight. A loss here could only be explained by the Cavs purposefully tanking the game in order to boost Atlanta’s chance of catching Brooklyn in the standings. #ConspiracyTheoryThursdays

Join the action at 7:30 EST!