The Cavaliers lose to the Hawks in OT after 26-point collapse in 4th quarter

The Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Atlanta Hawks 126-125 in overtime on Sunday after the Cavaliers blew a 26-point fourth quarter lead.

During the first three quarters, the Cavs were dominating the Hawks. Cleveland outscored Atlanta 38-21 in the first and never looked back, well at least until the fourth quarter. The Cavs had the lead up to 26 points at the start of the fourth quarter. Naturally, the Cavs eased up, and this allowed the Hawks to get back into the game.

Kyrie Irving scored 45 points for Cleveland, and James had a triple-double with 32 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists before the four-time MVP fouled out in overtime. Channing Frye scored 12 points and eight rebounds while filling in as a starter for the injured Tristan Thompson.

The Cavs' bench played horrible on Sunday, and were outscored 44-16 by the Hawks' bench. Through the first three quarters, only one Cavaliers' bench player, Kyle Korver, had scored in the game.

Even so, LeBron James isn't too concerned about the Cleveland Cavaliers with the playoffs about to start.

"Obviously, the last 10 games we've been 5-5," he said. "We had some good moments and we had some not-so-good moments today. The best thing for our team is we want to go down the stretch, be healthy and put a game plan together."

The Hawks wiped out a 26-point deficit in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Cavs 44-18 in the period and forcing overtime on Millsap's baseline jumper at the buzzer.

Millsap hit a 3 with 1:12 left in overtime to make it 118-116 for Atlanta's first lead of the game. Mike Muscala's 3-pointer from the right corner put the Hawks back up by one with 35 seconds left.

The Hawks seized control in the final 21 seconds after Kent Bazemore stole an inbound pass from Kevin Love for a layup and Hardaway hit three free throws.

The Cavaliers were collectively stunned over the loss and shouldered the blame for it. As an aside, they were also clearly frustrated with several officiating calls -- with at least three by Richardson, perhaps more -- that went against them in the closing seconds of regulation and overtime.

The Cavs led 111-109 with 8.3 seconds left when James inbounded the ball after a Hawks score to Irving. As Bazemore and Millsap were heading over to trap Irving, James said his timeout call was denied and "I'm sitting right next to the ref, and the explanation he gave me, I never heard in my 14-year career. Never.
"He told me that I'm not allowed to call timeout because he didn't know who had possession of the ball," James said, relaying what Richardson said to him. "And I was the one who entered the ball to Kyrie. And as soon as I seen Millsap go trap Kyrie in the short corner, I looked at him and called timeout twice -- at least twice -- and he wasn't even paying me no attention. And that's when the jump ball happened. I said, 'Why?' He said, 'I can't call timeout because I don't know who has possession of the ball. I don't know what's going on. I don't know the tie up.' I said, 'That doesn't make any sense because we have the ball. I entered the ball to Kyrie so you shouldn't even be worried about the tie up or not, I'm calling it as soon as I saw Kyrie is getting tied up in the corner.' To add to the craziness, it is clear as day that Bazemore's foot was out of bounds when he was trapping Irving.

The referees did NOT make the Cavs blow a 26-point lead or score only 18 points in the fourth quarter. They should be mad at themselves and each other NOT the refs.

Paul Milsap scored 22 points to lead the Hawks, including a buzzer-beater at the end of regulation to force overtime. Mike Muscala scored 12 points with two critical 3-pointers, including one with 35 seconds left in overtime that gave the Hawks the lead for good.

The defending champion Cavaliers dropped into a tie with Boston atop the Eastern Conference. Both teams have two regular-season games remaining. If the Cavs and Celtics finish with the same record, Cleveland will get the top seed for winning the season series.

COMING UP FOR THE CAVS: The Cavaliers will look to get back in the win column Monday night when they visit the Miami Heat, where they have lost 12 straight.