Cavs blow out Hawks for first win of season

Guard Rodney Hood scored a season-high 26 points and helped the Cleveland Cavaliers earn their first win in seven games this season, 136-114, over the visiting Atlanta Hawks.

The win marked the debut of Cleveland coach Larry Drew, who replaced Tyron Lue, who was fired on Sunday.

Hood was 9-for-13 from the field, including 4-for-4 on 3-point shots. The veteran from Duke has scored in double figures every game this season. He fell six points shy of matching his career high.

The Cavaliers also got 20 points from Cedi Osman, who has reached that mark in the last two games. Osman also added five rebounds and three assists. Veteran George Hill scored 17 points, and Jordan Clarkson added 15 off the bench.

The Cavaliers were playing without Kevin Love, who missed his third straight game with a sore left foot.

Atlanta lost its second straight game. The Hawks had defeated the Cavs 133-111 nine days ago, also in Cleveland. The Hawks made 22 3-pointers in the first meeting, but managed only 15 on Tuesday in completing their first set of games on back-to-back days this season.

The Hawks were led by rookie Trae Young with 24 points and four assists. He was 9-for-13 from the floor and 3-for-4 on 3-point shots. The Oklahoma product scored 35 against Cleveland in the first meeting.

Alex Len added a seaason-high 22 points and nine rebounds for Atlanta, which also got 13 points from rookie Kevin Huerter and 12 points and eight assists from Jeremy Lin.

Cleveland's Kyle Korver scored three points and reached the 11,000 mark for his career. Tristan Thompson had 13 rebounds and moved past Anderson Varejao for the fifth-most rebounds in franchise history.

Cleveland's reserves scored 49 points on Tuesday. They entered the game averaging 47.8 bench points, second-best in the NBA.

The game was close for a half, with Cleveland ahead 58-57. The Cavs pulled away in the third quarter thanks to a combination of hot shooting and 11 Atlanta turnovers, which led to 41 third-quarter points for the Cavs. Atlanta finished with 23 turnovers

In their last 20 meetings, Cleveland is 15-5 against the Hawks. They meet for the final time on Dec. 29 in Atlanta.

Atlanta plays again on Thursday at home against Sacramento. Cleveland hosts Denver on Thursday.

--Field Level Media

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)