What Stood Out From Cavaliers 117-109 Win Over the Atlanta Hawks

Injuries continued to hinder the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night as they welcomed the Atlanta Hawks to Rocket Arena. Center Jarrett Allen missed his second consecutive game with a broken ring finger while sharpshooter Sam Merrill sat out a third straight game while he continues nursing a hip pointer. 

That's on top of still missing Darius Garland, who went through another thorough pregame warmup, and Max Strus who have been sidelined since the beginning of the season. That meant Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell were going to be left carrying the offensive workload in what turned out to be a pretty low scoring affair. 

In the end, that duo combined for 51 points and got just enough from a rotating cast of supporting players roles to eek past the Hawks 117-109. 

Here's what caught my attention in Cleveland's win: 

One of the stats the told the story of the night was points off turnovers. The Hawks committed 23- turnovers for the game, which the Cavaliers converted into 33 points. On a night where Cleveland was missing a lot of scoring options, turning the Hawks errors into points helped turn the game very much in its favor. 

Mitchell finished with a team-high 37 points, on 21 shots, a whopping 15 of which were three pointers. The Cavs needed him tonight, and he knew it, especially with Mobley having only scored six points leading into the fourth quarter. Despite the brilliant effort, it's pretty obvious that something is off right now. 

Mitchell is at his best when he's mixing and matching threes with those killer cuts to the basket. The latter of those have come few and far between the last few games since news of his hamstring tightness first popped up last week. He took just five shots inside the key against Atlanta and six total inside the arc. 

It feels fair to assume the hamstring is hindering him right now and the Cavs have to tread lightly with Mitchell's usage moving forward. 

For three quarters Evan Mobley was having rough night at the office on the offensive end. Entering the fourth quarter he had just six points on 3-of-11 shooting and couldn't find his rhythm. 

Finally something clicked in the fourth quarter though. When Mitchell needed some help closing things out, Mobley rose to the occasion scoring eight points, including a pretty massive three at the 1:24 mark to put the Cavs up 109-100 and put Atlanta away for good.

Per usual, when Mobley's having an off night, he made his presence felt on the defensive end in other ways. He was +13 for the game, contributing five assists, eight rebounds, three steals and one block. 

Kenny Atkinson leaned into his youth to open up the fourth quarter, putting the trio of Tyrese Proctor, Jaylon Tyson and Craig Porter Jr. on the floor alongside Mitchell and Mobley. All three of those youngsters seemed to have a moment, a play or a key contribution that helped Cleveland win. 

Tyrese Proctor had four points, a steal and an assist in 11 minutes. Craig Porter Jr. was massive on the glass, grabbing seven rebounds, including three pretty massive ones in the fourth quarter, to go along with four points, three assists and a steal. 

Tyson headlined the group with 18 points and his physical play helped him lead the team in plus/minus at +16. It was a nice cherry to top off what had been a breakout week for Tyson overall, who has gone 19, 18, 18 in three straight games. 

The Cavaliers lost the rebounding battle for the fifth time this season. Atlanta snagged 46 boards to their 44. That continues to be a concerning trend, but the second half provided some signs of hope.

Cleveland dominated the glass in the 25-16 in the third and fourth quarters. Porter Jr. had six of his seven boards for the game in the final two quarters. Lonzo Ball, after a bit of a rough outing overall, had five. Mobley added four of his own as well. 

It's something a build on moving forward.