{"id":423236,"date":"2024-12-01T00:46:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T00:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=423236"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Hawks-top-Cavs-again-to-advance-in-NBA-Cup-Boston-beat-Bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Hawks-top-Cavs-again-to-advance-in-NBA-Cup-Boston-beat-Bulls\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks top Cavs again to advance in NBA Cup, Boston beat Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>De&#8217;Andre Hunter scored 23 points off the bench as the Atlanta Hawks beat league-leading Cleveland again on Friday to advance in the NBA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks, who handed the Cavs their first home defeat of the season on Wednesday, came out on top at home, parlaying a 52-50 halftime lead into a 117-101 triumph.<\/p>\n<p>It was enough to put Atlanta into the NBA Cup knockout rounds as winner of their group after the Boston Celtics beat the Bulls 138-129 in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>Trae Young scored 21 points and handed out 11 assists and Jalen Johnson chipped in 20 points for Atlanta, who had six players score in double figures.<\/p>\n<p>Darius Garland scored 29 points for Cleveland and Evan Mobley added 24 points for the Cavs, who opened the season on a 15-0 tear and at 17-3 still boast the best record in the league.<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks held Cavs star Donovan Mitchell to 12 points and out-scored Cleveland 39-23 in the third quarter to take control for good in the contest that was one of 10 NBA Cup group stage games scheduled on the Thanksgiving holiday Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They outplayed us,&#8221; Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said after the Cavaliers were held to their lowest point total of the season. &#8220;Sometimes you just have to call it like you see it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles Lakers, who won the inaugural edition of the Cup last season, were essentially eliminated from the in-season tournament after falling 101-93 to the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n<p>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter for Oklahoma City, draining a three-pointer that put the Thunder up 95-91 with 1:35 remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Gilgeous-Alexander added a pair of free throws and Jalen Williams came up with a steal and a dunk as the Thunder kept the Lakers at bay.<\/p>\n<p>Dalton Knecht was the Lakers&#8217; top scorer with 20 points. Anthony Davis added 15 and LeBron James scored 12 points but produced five of the Lakers&#8217; 17 turnovers.<\/p>\n<p>The NBA champion Celtics, meanwhile, maintained their wildcard hopes with their win over the Bulls &#8212; who came into their game fighting the Hawks for group supremacy.<\/p>\n<p>Jayson Tatum scored 35 points and pulled down 14 rebounds and reserve Payton Pritchard scored 19 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter to help Boston pull away in a see-saw battle that featured 14 lead changes.<\/p>\n<p>Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis scored 21 points apiece for the Celtics while Nikola Vucevic led the Bulls with 32 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p><h2>&#8211; Knicks sting Hornets &#8211;<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The New York Knicks, buoyed by Jalen Brunson&#8217;s fourth-quarter heroics, improved to 3-0 in Cup play with a 99-98 victory over the Hornets in Charlotte.<\/p>\n<p>The Hornets challenged despite missing five of their top six scorers, with LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Tre Mann, Grant Williams, Mark Williams and Nick Richards all sidelined.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Outside looking in, you&#8217;re thinking they&#8217;ve got some key guys out, so this is supposed to be an easy game. That&#8217;s not how the NBA works,&#8221; New York&#8217;s Josh Hart told reporters after the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brunson scored 11 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter, draining a pair of free-throws with 8.6 seconds left that pushed New York&#8217;s lead to four points.<\/p>\n<p>The win left the Knicks tied atop their group with Orlando, who beat the Brooklyn Nets 123-100. The Knicks and Magic will face off for the group crown on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Franz Wagner scored 29 points with eight rebounds and eight assists to fuel the Magic in their fifth straight win.<\/p>\n<p>Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 19 points for Orlando, who had little trouble with a Nets team missing top-scorer Dennis Schroder &#8212; who was absent for personal reasons &#8212; and injured playmaker Cam Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, the Minnesota Timberwolves halted their four-game losing streak with a 93-92 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Edwards connected on just seven of 21 shots from the field but led the Timberwolves with 21 points.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had a terrible game tonight,&#8221; said Edwards, adding that Minnesota&#8217;s defense carried the day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Defensively I think we dominated the game,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>bb\/dhw<\/p>\n<p> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/7b99ddc1fe33d17021e388ce7146f40d.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>De&#8217;Andre Hunter of the Atlanta Hawks reacts after a three-point basket in an NBA victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/p>\n<p>-Kevin C. Cox<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/3deb7447d02aa820b200922333b15356.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Boston&#8217;s Payton Pritchard reacts after a basket in the Celtics&#8217; NBA victory over the Chicago Bulls<\/p>\n<p>-Luke Hales<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>De&#8217;Andre Hunter scored 23 points off the bench as the Atlanta Hawks beat league-leading Cleveland&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}