{"id":708229,"date":"2026-04-11T14:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708229\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T14:30:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:30:35","slug":"cavaliers-dropping-friday-nights-game-against-hawks-had-playoff-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708229\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavaliers Dropping Friday Night’s Game Against Hawks Had Playoff Implications"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> fell to the Atlanta Hawks 124-102 in Atlanta on Friday night. <\/p>\n

With the loss, the Cavaliers fell to 51-30 overall and 25-16 on the road. <\/p>\n

The win for Atlanta secured the Hawks a playoff spot, and it is looking more likely that the Cavaliers and Hawks will meet in the first round as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cavaliers Awaiting Final day of Regular Season to Learn First Round Opponent\"Cleveland<\/p>\n

Apr 6, 2026; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson looks on during the second quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers are locked into the No. 4 seed<\/a>, but the Hawks could potentially fall to the No. 6 seed if they lose their final game and the Toronto Raptors win their final game, as the Raptors have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Hawks this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers were shorthanded in their penultimate game of the season, as Donovan Mitchell missed the game with a right ankle injury and Jarrett Allen missed the game with a right knee injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James Harden<\/a> put together a productive game in the wake of both Mitchell and Allen sitting out, as he logged 20 points on the night and dished out five assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cavaliers Shot Poorly From Beyond the Arc\"Cleveland<\/p>\n

Apr 2, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward\/guard Max Strus (2) scores a three point basket against the Golden State Warriors during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers had a somewhat woeful night form beyond the arc as they shot just 28 percent from three. Max Strus went 0-4 from range while Jaylon Tyson went 0-5. <\/p>\n

Dean Wade struggled as well, logging just three points in his 17 minutes of playing time. While the Cavaliers do have the No. 4 seed wrapped up, Cavs fans would hope that the team would play with a bit more urgency against a team they could potentially see in the first-round of the NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Hawks put Game to bed With Third Quarter 16-0 Run\"Cleveland<\/p>\n

Apr 10, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Tyrese Proctor (24) shoots behind Atlanta Hawks center Tony Bradley (24) during the second half at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers fell behind from the jump, as the Hawks took a 27-22 lead at the end of the first quarter. Atlanta would outscore Cleveland in the second quarter 34-26, before turning it on in the second half. With the Hawks leading 66-55 in the third, Atlanta put together a 16-0 run that would put the final result beyond any doubt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers allowed multiple Hawks players to get hot from the floor, including Dyson Daniels, who finished the game with 13 points and 12 assists.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers will finish their regular season home in Cleveland against the Washington Wizards on Sunday at 6:00 P.M. The game can be watched on FanDuel Sports Network Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Atlanta Hawks 124-102 in Atlanta on Friday night. With the loss, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,677,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-708229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-hawks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116386558338146033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}