A Wednesday night, end of the season matchup between the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers was considered a hypothetical playoff preview between the current fourth and fifth seeds in the Eastern Conference. 

The showdown certainly met the moment as the two foes exchanged blows across 48 minutes. Even as the wine and gold pulled away going into the fourth quarter, Atlanta had one last rally of its own to bring the game within just a few points in the closing minutes. 

In the end, Cleveland held on for a 122-116 win and may have provided a preview of what's to come in a couple weeks. 

Here are some takeaways from the Cavs victory: 

With a potential playoff series with the Hawks looming, Kenny Atkinson decided to treat this matchup as a bit of a dress rehearsal. In the spirit of that, he opened the game with the lineup that feels like it's likely to be Cleveland's starting group when the playoffs begin. 

Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and Dean Wade made up the Cavs starting five on Wednesday. That group went on to outscore the Hawks starters 98-82, and were +56 as a group for the night. 

Atkinson tried a couple of different iterations of that group to close out each half. Going into halftime, he inserted Max Strus instead of Wade and at the end of the game, he inserted Sam Merrill for Wade. Bookmark those looks for the playoffs as well. 

There was an obvious effort to get Mobley involved early and boy did it set the tone for Cleveland's versatile big man to have a big night. In the first quarter, it felt like Mobley touched the ball at least once on almost every possession. He quickly racked up 10 points in the opening stanza and grabbed five boards. 

From there, Mobley finished with a double-double, with 22 point and 19 rebounds. He added 3 assists and blocked 3 shots as well. If Atkinson was trying to prove a point, it worked. The Hawks don't seem to have a tangible answer for Mobley should if they're destined to meet in a seven-game series. 

Allen deserves plenty of credit for playing through his knee injury in an effort to build some valuable on-court chemistry with his teammates before the postseason. But it's glaringly obvious that he's not quite himself out there. 

Yes, he still contributed in some meaningful ways, as he does. Allen finished with 16 points, 8 rebounds and went 8-of-11 from the charity stripe. He's just not moving like he usually does, getting up and down the floor and with the ball in his hands near the basket. Nobody serves to benefit more from a looming week off than Allen.

Cleveland may have delivered its best third quarter of the season on Wednesday. They outscored Atlanta 44-20 in the period and seemed to have a little more effort on the defensive end, holding the Hawks to just 1-of-7 from three. Conversely, the Cavs shot 7-of-10 from outside the arc. It felt like they had set the tone for the second half, storming out to a 17-point lead. 

Unfortunately, it didn't carry over into the fourth quarter as sloppy play, including 6 costly turnovers that were turned into 9 points, helped Atlanta chip away at the lead. It cut the lead to two twice, before the Cavs separated over the final 1:30 of play to hold on. It all felt a little too close for comfort for a team still trying to prove it can close out games. 

The Hawks are top five in three-point percentage this season, which is problematic for the Cavs when they struggle to defend the perimeter. It's one of the reasons a potential playoff series with Atlanta shouldn't be considered a cake walk. 

Wednesday was a good litmus test for how that may go and it went about how you'd expect. The Hawks only shot 12-for-24 from deep for the game, a sign of progress perhaps for Cleveland. Still, far too often, guys like Mitchell found themselves crashing the paint on defense, leaving a shooter wide open for three. 

If these two teams are destined to meet in the playoffs, they're going to have to find a way to defend the three better, because if Atlanta gets hot and stays hot from long range, it could flip the series. 

This win makes things interesting for Cleveland with two games to go. It's obviously locked up a top four seed already, so nothing changes there. With two games to go, though, the Cavs now sit just a half-game back of the New York Knicks for the three seed. 

The Knicks play the Boston Celtics on Thursday and a loss would bring the two Eastern Conference foes even with each other record-wise. New York holds a tiebreaker after beating the wine and gold two out of three times this season.

These final few games for both teams are now critical in determining the third and fourth seeds in the conference, and who has to potentially see the Boston Celtics first. 

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