The Cleveland Cavaliers win their third straight game after defeating the Atlanta Hawks.

The Cavs get back on track and win their third straight game after going through their first real slide of the season about a week ago. They beat an Atlanta Hawks team who they match up pretty well against. The final score was 114-102.

J.B. Bickerstaff insisted before the game that there wasn’t any extra motivation for the Cavs with it being their first time playing the Hawks since Atlanta eliminated Cleveland in the play-in tournament at the end of last season. But human nature says there had to be a little extra juice when you go up against the team that ended your season.

However, a lot has happened for both teams since the season ended in the Spring. Atlanta made a blockbuster trade for former Spurs guard Dejounte Murray, someone who the Cavs had been rumored to be interested in. After they missed out on him, Cleveland paired Darius Garland with Donovan Mitchell which has already proven to be a success.

Cleveland started the game off strong by scoring 38 points in the first quarter which is a season-high for the opening frame. They shot a fantastic 71 percent from the floor. That efficiency stayed continued during the game as they finished shooting 60 percent from the field and 53 percent from behind the arc.

The Cavs’ defense against Atlanta’s backcourt was phenomenal in the win! They clearly had a game plan that they weren’t going to let both Murray and Tre Young beat them and they executed that well.

Murray finished with just 11 points and Young had 24.

Cedi Osman also continues to be huge on the Cavs bench. After Sunday night’s victory, Coach Bickerstaff referred to him as a “sparkplug” and he demonstrated that against the Hawks. He finished with 23 points and 3 rebounds.

Overall, this Cavs team looked more like the Cleveland team we saw at the beginning of the season. They played fantastic defense, were unselfish on the offensive end, and were efficient from the field.

Cleveland is back in action on Wednesday night as they prepare to take on the Portland Trailblazers at Rocket Mortgage Field House.