Darius Garland scored 26 points and Donovan Mitchell added 24 as the Cleveland Cavaliers easily defeated the visiting Atlanta Hawks 137-115 on Thursday night.
Ty Jerome scored 20 points off the bench, Evan Mobley celebrated his maiden NBA All-Star Game selection with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Jarrett Allen pulled down 15 boards to go with nine points.
A dominant 39-21 third quarter, a clinical 58.2 percent shooting clip and a 53-43 rebounding advantage all contributed to Cleveland’s resounding third straight victory.
Zaccharie Risacher scored 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting for the Hawks, while sixth-man De’Andre Hunter had 25 and Trae Young posted 15 points and 10 assists.
Garland, selected ahead of Young as a reserve for the East in the NBA All-Star Game, was prolific early for the Cavaliers, who hit 16 of 25 from the floor to lead 39-29 after the first quarter.
Cleveland’s lead stretched to 14 points in the second frame before the Hawks scaled the margin back to 71-63 at intermission, primarily through Risacher, who had 20 points on 7-of-7 shooting, and Hunter, who had all 18 of the Cavs’ first-half points off the bench.
Cleveland blew the contest apart in the third quarter as Mitchell and Max Strus found their range.
The Cavaliers burst ahead 90-70, then conceded the next eight points, before reasserting their authority emphatically.
Mitchell drained two threes in a 15-1 Cleveland burst, as part of an overall 20-3 run, which helped the Cavs march ahead 110-84 with a quarter to play.
Hunter and Onyeka Okongwu minimized some of the damage in the fourth period, which Atlanta won 31-27, but it was not enough to stop the Hawks from sliding to their seventh successive defeat, the franchise’s longest regular-season losing streak since the 2019-20 season.
