Watch out, Hawks! You’re in Uncle Drew’s House now!

After another defeat in the clutch on the road, this time in Miami at the hands of LeGrinch, the Atlanta Hawks fly north to duel with the Cleveland Cavaliers (7:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Ohio). Atlanta has just a 4-9 road record, but six of those losses have been within a five-point deficit.

You can bet Kyrie Irving has had this game circled on his calendar for a couple weeks now. Were it not for Kyle Korver’s record-breaking Threak during a 108-99 Hawks rout on December 6, most of the postgame discussion would have centered on Kyrie Irving finishing a basketball game scoreless (0-for-9 FGs, 0-for-3 FTs) probably for the first time since Pre-K. Irving has struggled mightily at times on the road (18.9 PPG/4.7 APG, 39.2 FG%/29.0 3FG%/73.8 FT%) but is a different breed of All-Star at Quicken Loans Arena (24.2 PPG/7.4 APG, 43.9 FG%/37.1 3FG%/90.5 FT%).

Even with Irving playing better offensively in his comfier confines, it’s been a couple weeks since Cavs fans left their arena wholly satisfied. Last week, Irving (25 points, 10 assists) was upstaged by the clutch heroics of Portland’s Damian Lillard (36 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds). Then Cleveland needed his watered-down version of a Flu Game (39 points, 6 assists) to offset a suddenly emergent Brandon Knight (17 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists) and fend off the last-place Bucks.

This past week, after Irving (14 points, 5 assists) made new Bulls acquisition D.J. Augustin (18 points, 10 assists) look halfway decent while getting blown out in Chicago, his Cavs returned home and got blitzed on Monday night against Brandon Jennings (21 points, 13 assists) and the Pistons. Needless to say, he needs a big night relative to Jeff Teague (17.5 PPG, 10.3 APG) to give Cleveland (10-17) a chance to win. Failing to elevate teammates' play as a point guard while shooting just 41.5 FG% himself, Irving is seeing local fan sentiment shift from, "Kyrie, don't leave!" to "Kyrie, don't heave!"

In hindsight, it’s hard to look at this Cleveland roster and imagine how someone would expect any straw-spinner to turn it into a golden playoff contender. They’ve got seven players on the roster with less than two years of NBA experience, including three guys bouncing back and forth from the D-League, and first-overall 2013 pick Anthony Bennett who continues to play like he should be joining them. None of their top three scorers have been in the league more than three NBA seasons. They’re reliant on two bigs returning from major injuries that kept them out of most/all of last year.

During the second-half of Atlanta’s last victory over the Cavs, the only leak the Hawk defense couldn’t really plug was guard Dion Waiters, the second-year guard oft-maligned by his coaching staff who scored a season-high 30 points. Faced with the utter futility of Cleveland’s starting backcourt (Irving, C.J. Miles, and Alonzo Gee a combined three points, shooting 1-for-19 from the floor), Head Coach Mike Brown realized somebody had to drive to the basket and make open shots, and Waiters was ready to serve. He combined with Andrew Bynum (20 points, 13 rebounds) to shoot 22-for-34, while their teammates finished 16-for-60.

Unfortunately for the Cavs, Waiters has been reportedly suffering from wrist tendonitis and has missed out on the last three games. He’s a gametime decision for tonight, but hasn’t practiced on the floor with the team and his ability to score as effectively as he has recently (20.7 PPG in his last three games) is questionable. Brown may go full-Aussie, pairing Irving with rookie Matthew Dellavedova when the Hawks go to a small backcourt, as they did briefly in Miami when Lou Williams, Teague, and Shelvin Mack all shared the floor. But one of the Down Under Duo will have to embrace the passing role.

Bynum served up a bagel of his own against Detroit on Monday (0 points, 0-for-11 shooting) and is looking to bounce back in a big way. Brown noted the challenge he is facing rotating Bynum, Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varejao, Tyler Zeller and Earl Clark for the 96 combined minutes contained in the two frontcourt spots. Hawks mainstays Paul Millsap (25-and-10 against the HEAT) and Al Horford (three straight games of 20+ points) will face a lot of different looks from the Cavs defense.

The one thing Cleveland does well as a team is rebound the ball on their offensive end (12.0 ORebs per game, 8^th in NBA), so yeoman’s work from Elton Brand will be crucial to the outcome. Brand played just eight-and-a-half minutes against rebounding-challenged Miami, and the Hawks are 10-3 when he logs at least ten minutes of floortime, 1-6 otherwise.

Go Hawks!

~lw3