{"id":315627,"date":"2025-11-29T03:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315627\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T03:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:17:08","slug":"cavs-get-knocked-out-of-nba-cup-by-hawks-for-second-year-in-a-row-130-123","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315627\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs get knocked out of NBA Cup by Hawks for second year in a row, 130-123"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 For the second straight year, Cleveland arrived in Atlanta with a chance to push through to the knockout round of the NBA Cup, and for the second straight year, the Hawks snatched that hope right out of the air. <\/p>\n

The Cavs fell 130-123 on Friday night, and the familiar sting wasn\u2019t just about the final score. It was the way the game kept offering a spark before smothering it moments later.<\/p>\n

The night had a strange rhythm from the start, like a team tapping the gas and the brakes without realizing which foot was where. Slow first quarter. Inspired second. A third quarter that leaked energy from the opening possession. A fourth quarter spent chasing a feeling that never quite returned.<\/p>\n

But for a stretch, the game belonged to De\u2019Andre Hunter. His return to State Farm Arena was more of a reckoning than a reunion. <\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, he didn\u2019t try to hide how much he circled this date.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s [any] challenge at all,\u201d Hunter said at shootaround. \u201cThey can\u2019t stop me. They know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second quarter delivered the kind of moment athletes dream of writing for themselves. Hunter rose over Mouhamed Gueye and threw down a dunk that felt like a punctuation mark on his Atlanta years. As they ran back up the court, words flew, pride surged, and Gueye shoved Hunter to the floor. It was the ignition Cleveland needed.<\/p>\n

How to watch the Cavs: See how to watch the Cavs games with this handy game-by-game TV schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Down 13, suddenly the Cavs had life. That little scrap shook off whatever sleepiness had lingered from the first quarter, and the next few minutes felt like a team rediscovering its competitive pulse. Hunter and Donovan Mitchell \u2014 who finished with 42 points \u2014carved up the Hawks, pushing Cleveland to 39 second-quarter points. State Farm Arena murmured. Hawks players barked. But it was the Cavs who stole a halftime lead.<\/p>\n

But momentum is fragile, especially on the road. And when the third quarter opened with an extended delay to fix malfunctioning shot clocks \u2014 a delay that solved nothing, as the main basket shot clocks didn\u2019t work for the remainder of the contest \u2014 the energy that had filled Cleveland\u2019s huddle seemed to trickle out once more. <\/p>\n

The Cavs came back on the court quieter, slower, disconnected. <\/p>\n

Atlanta didn\u2019t waste the opening. The Hawks\u2019 pace punished Cleveland. Lobs rained from above. Backdoor cuts stretched Cleveland\u2019s defense past its limits. Every missed shot or late rotation turned into a runway, and suddenly the Cavs were chasing shadows instead of opponents.<\/p>\n

This was supposed to be the game where Cleveland\u2019s full starting lineup showed its power. Three days of rest. Fully acclimated. Playing for Hunter, who finished with 16 points.<\/p>\n

Instead, it felt like a group shaking off rust. Jarrett Allen returned from a three-game absence but never found his offensive rhythm. Evan Mobley had a matchup built for interior dominance with Kristaps Porzingis sidelined, yet he kept settling for turnarounds instead of attacking the rim until it was too late. The Twin Towers won the glass decisively (48-38), but the advantage never changed the terms of engagement. Atlanta dictated the scoring on the inside, defeating Cleveland\u2019s bigs 64-46.<\/p>\n

Down seven heading into the fourth, the Cavs hung around just enough to tempt. The game was tied with under 90 seconds remaining. They made Atlanta sweat for a moment. But this game had a rhythm \u2014 bursts from Cleveland, answers from Atlanta \u2014 and the Hawks kept landing the last punch in every exchange. A transition layup here. A lob there. A loose-ball bounce that went their way. And a triple from Nickeil Alexander-Walker to seal the contest. <\/p>\n

All the little moments that fill the space between two teams decided the game long before the horn.<\/p>\n

And so, Cleveland walked off the floor at 12-8, carrying another loss, another missed Cup opportunity, and another night wondering why the team they want to be keeps showing up in short, fleeting intervals.<\/p>\n

It was a day-after-Thanksgiving game that felt like it played after a full holiday meal. Heavy legs, slower reactions and fogginess where intensity should\u2019ve lived. <\/p>\n

But buried in the frustration was a reminder: the Cavs still have levels to reach, gears to unlock, and a mental edge they talk about often but haven\u2019t fully captured.<\/p>\n

The pieces are there. The consistency is not. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s partially because they\u2019re still getting players back from the injury report. But the excuses are running thin for a team with championship hopes and an understanding the injuries in the playoffs are far too common to rely on a fully healthy roster.<\/p>\n

Next<\/p>\n

The Cavs travel home to Cleveland to host the Boston Celtics at Rocket Arena on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. Eastern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 For the second straight year, Cleveland arrived in Atlanta with a chance to push through to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[7218,64,63,17603,590,85],"class_list":["post-315627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}