Takeaways From the Hawks' 114-111 Win Over the Cavaliers

The Atlanta Hawks trailed the Cleveland Cavaliers by 15 early in the second quarter Thursday night at State Farm Arena and won 114-111. Onyeka Okongwu had 29 points and 12 rebounds, and his putback at the 28.2-second mark made it 112-109.

Atlanta is 3-3. Before Thursday, the Hawks had lost three straight, two of them at home.

At halftime, Jalen Johnson had 5 points on 2-of-5 shooting and 3 turnovers. He scored 12 after the break on 5-of-11, with 4 assists and 1 turnover.

Hawks coach Quin Snyder said Johnson was one of several players who battled through a rough shooting stretch Thursday.

"I mentioned JJ, too," Snyder said. "I think he got better as the game went on, too. For him to come in at halftime and to not be focused on what was going on at that moment with his offense, he just had thrown himself into the game, and he made big plays for us down the stretch. Some of the same type of plays we're talking about. How do you contribute to winning? So seeing those guys do that, I think, is great. It should be affirming. I think it is."

With 8:03 left, Johnson tipped in a miss for a 99-91 lead. CJ McCollum stole a James Harden pass at 6:24, and Johnson finished the break with a dunk off a Dyson Daniels feed. He set up Okongwu's cutting layup for a 103-94 lead, hit a 25-foot transition 3-pointer from Aaron Wiggins at 4:37, and found Daniels for a reverse layup with 2:25 to go.

He finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists in 34:05. Against Miami on Wednesday, he had 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting with 11 assists and 9 rebounds. In Saturday's home opener against Houston, he had 26 points, 9 rebounds, and 16 assists.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting, 4-of-12 from 3-point range, and 5-of-5 at the line. Thirteen of them came in the third quarter. He also made the two free throws with 15.3 seconds left that put Atlanta up three.

He scored 31 in the season opener at Orlando and 23 against Miami on Wednesday.

Wiggins added 20 off the bench in 23:55. Snyder said the way Wiggins goes about it on offense has a settling effect on the rest of the floor.

"Sometimes they mess you up a little bit because which hand do they like?" Snyder explained. "So you get into that a little bit, but they're both capable coming off screening actions, playing off dribble handoffs, playing a little pick-and-roll. And it's been a real point of emphasis for both those guys when they're able to create advantages to have an awareness about what else is going on on the floor and to make those reads.

"And I thought both of them tonight did a great job of making good decisions," Snyder continued. "Sometimes when you don't want to be less aggressive, particularly late tonight, they were trapping [Nickeil] on handoffs and situations. And that happened the other night in pick-and-roll. We didn't read it as well as we needed to. So that, to me, that's a big deal for Nickeil to be able to adjust to different coverages, whether they're top-locking a screen. And, to your point, Aaron's able to do some of the same things. It's good they're in there together. They really feed off each other."

Atlanta outscored Cleveland 15-4 in fast-break points, going 6-of-11 on those attempts. Six of the 15 came in the second quarter, when the Hawks erased the 15-point deficit.

The Hawks had 15 offensive rebounds to Cleveland's 9 and won second-chance points 16-13. Okongwu had 5 offensive rebounds. Jock Landale had 4 of his 10 rebounds on the offensive end in 15:22 while playing through a nasal fracture the Hawks announced Oct. 23.

Atlanta won the overall rebounding battle 53-45 and scored 50 points in the paint to Cleveland's 46. On Monday, Houston outrebounded the Hawks 52-35 in a 120-110 Rockets win at Toyota Center.

McCollum shot 1-of-8 and scored 5 points, 3 of them at the free-throw line. He also had 8 assists, 2 steals, and 4 turnovers in 31:24.

Four of the assists came in the second quarter. His steal from Sam Merrill with 4:37 left in the half led to Okongwu's fast-break layup that tied it 37-37, and his 6-foot floater 85 seconds later produced the only lead change of the game.

Atlanta plays at New Orleans on Saturday, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. ET.