Home-Opener Was Impressive
Kobe had a warm-welcome
Cavaliers
93
Hawks
117
By Arthur Barclay
ATLANTA-At the end of the 1st quarter, the Hawks we're trailing 27-25. During the 2nd period, the Cavs went on a 8-0 run and was leading 35-25. The Hawks started to comeback and made a run before halftime and was leading 54-48. Kobe had 17 pts in the 1st half.
With 5:37 left in the 3rd quarter, the Hawks took complete control as they we're up 71-60.
At the end of the 3rd, the Hawks we're hot on offense scoring 88 pts. The Cavs we're still trying to stick around with the score at 88-77. Lebron was also in foul-trouble, only playing 2 minutes in the 3rd with 4 fouls. He checked back into the game with 7:50 remaining in the 4th quarter.
With 2:50 left, the score was 111-88 and Coach Jackson put his bench players into the game to finish it off. The Hawks came out with the W with a 119-93 blow-out against the Cavaliers in their home-opener.
The Player of the Game was Kobe Bryant, who had 25 pts, 8 asts and 4 rebs. Cleveland had another great performance out of Zydrunas Ilgauskas who had 24 pts, 9 rebs and 4 blks. Kendrick Brown recorded a season-high with 16 pts. Lebron had 10 pts who only played 16 minutes because of foul trouble.
As for the Brackett vs. Boozer match-up, Boozer owned Brackett with 15 pts and 14 rebs. Brackett scored 10 pts and had 5 boards.
Rasheed Wallace had a great game with 20 pts, 9 rebs and 5 blks. Jason Terry had 14 pts, 5 rebs and 5 asts. Gilbert Arenas had 12 pts, 9 asts and 8 rebs, but couldn't come out of his shooting slump shooting 4-17 from the field. Michael Case and Boris Diaw both had 10 pts off the bench.
Post Game Quotes: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Hawks, Oct. 31, 2004
ATLANTA HAWKS FORWARD KOBE BRYANT(25 pts, 8 asts, 4 rebs)
On being with a new team...
"I love being with my new team. It's like I'm finally able to be the leader and can help this team reach the NBA Finals. All the players are great and are just like family to me. We have great chemistry for this to be our 2nd game of the season. After the all-star break, we will be very dangerous to handle."
ATLANTA HAWKS GUARD GILBERT ARENAS(12 pts, 9 asts, 8 rebs)
On shooting slump...
"Well, this is only the 2nd game of the season and I know I will get out of this slump. Next game, I should shoot a very respectable percentage. Even if I am on a bad shooting slump, the other players are playing well and helping me out. I'm getting rebounds and getting plenty of assits which is helping me with my slhooting slump. Let's just hope I will be out of it next game against the Warriors."
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS CENTER ZYDRUNAS ILGAUSKAS(24 pts, 9 rebs)
On his season performance...
"Umm..I'm just going out there and playing with the potential I have. Hopefully, our team will start to win some games because we shouldn't have lost both of our games in a back-to-back game against the same team. We will try to be more agressive next game."
Next Game:
Hawks(2-0) @ Warriors(1-1)