Hawks let prime chance slip away as Cavaliers played ‘OK game’

1:17 AM ET

CLEVELAND –- The Atlanta Hawks came in saying they were a better team than the one that last faced LeBron James in the playoffs.

So, naturally, the Hawks came out shooting blanks on Monday night, falling behind by 18 in the third quarter and looking like LeBron road kill again. But then Dennis Schroder got hotter than he ever has in his career and the Hawks began burying shots.

Suddenly, that lead that was as big as that James mural that hangs on the side of a building just across the way from Quicken Loans Arena was gone.

Atlanta stormed back and led the Cleveland Cavaliers, 88-87, with 4:28 left.

“We had momentum,” Paul Millsap said.

Not just that, the Hawks got a scent of a first-ever playoff win over James. It was within their grasp. And then it was snatched away in the form of two massive offensive rebounds by Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith on one critical possession with under three minutes remaining. The result was James taking a Kyrie Irving pass, driving inside and scoring while being fouled.

Reserve guard Dennis Schroder sizzled for the Hawks, scoring a postseason career-high 27 points. Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports

James celebrated by flexing his right bicep while pounding it with his left hand. Yet again, King James was too strong and too much for the Hawks to handle.

Atlanta wilted down the stretch and finished with that all too familiar feeling of losing to James. Cleveland took Game 1, 104-93, beating Atlanta for a ninth straight time in the postseason.

While the Hawks were saying that they had several positives to pull from this loss, like how they fought back admirably, James seemed to really put things in perspective long after the Hawks left the arena.

“We played an OK game,” James said in a news conference. “I don’t think we played to our standards. The first game is always kind of a feel-out and we look forward to the challenges of Wednesday.”

Sad thing is, James …

continue reading in source espn.go.com