{"id":596386,"date":"2026-04-11T05:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596386\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T05:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:39:08","slug":"hawks-clinch-a-playoff-spot-and-southeast-division-behind-29-points-from-mccollum-in-rout-of-cavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596386\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks clinch a playoff spot and Southeast Division behind 29 points from McCollum in rout of Cavs"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 CJ McCollum<\/a> scored 29 points and the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> used a big third quarter to blow out the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> 124-102 on Friday night, clinching a playoff spot and the Southeast Division title.<\/p>\n

The Hawks had not won the Southeast Division since 2021, when they ultimately advanced to the Eastern Conference finals. They have been in the play-in tournament the last four seasons.<\/p>\n

James Harden<\/a> scored 20 points for the Cavs, who are locked into the No. 4 seed in the East. Jaylon Tyson<\/a> returned from a 10-game absence to start and had 15 points.<\/p>\n

Dyson Daniels<\/a> had 13 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds for the Hawks, his second triple-double of his career. Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a> had 18 points and Jalen Johnson<\/a> added 18 points and nine rebounds before sitting out the final 10 minutes of the game. The Cavs shot 26% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

The Hawks have won 14 of their final 15 home games ahead of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Atlanta led 66-55 in the third quarter, then put together a 16-0 run to push the lead to 27. It was never threatened thereafter.<\/p>\n

The Cavs were missing leading scorer Donovan Mitchell<\/a> (right ankle) and starter Jarrett Allen<\/a> (right knee), as well as reserve Sam Merrill<\/a> (left hamstring).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 CJ McCollum scored 29 points and the Atlanta Hawks used a big third quarter to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[175553,49,48,122281,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-596386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-atlanta-braves-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-239","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-5","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}