The Evening Tilt: Atlanta Took Friday Night

Two wins. Two different sports. Two different kinds of loud. Here is your Friday night.

Hawks 124, Cavaliers 102

The question from this morning — can the Hawks beat the team that just exposed them — got answered in the third quarter. A 35-17 run that turned a 13-point lead into a game that was over before the fourth quarter began. CJ McCollum went 6-for-8 from three and scored 29 on 16 shots. Dyson Daniels had a triple-double: 13 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists. Cleveland committed 19 turnovers and shot 26 percent from three.

The Hawks clinched the sixth seed and the Southeast Division title. Projected first-round matchup: the New York Knicks. Simone has the full postgame read — the short version is that State Farm Arena went from hopeful to certain somewhere in the third quarter and never came back.

The 0-4 against contenders is 1-4. One game is a data point, not a trend reversal. But the data point came against Cleveland, two days after Cleveland made the Hawks look small. That matters.

Braves 11, Guardians 5

The sixth inning is the story. A 6-run frame that broke a 1-1 game wide open, anchored by Matt Olson's two-run homer (441 feet) and Ronald Acuña Jr.'s solo shot (411 feet). Michael Harris II added a two-run homer in the seventh (425 feet). Fifteen hits total. The Braves looked like the version of themselves that makes the NL East uncomfortable.

Ellis wrote this morning about Baldwin ascending and Riley descending — the two lines on the ledger. Tonight a third line showed up: the middle of the order. Olson, Acuña, and Harris combined for three homers and six RBI. Ellis has the full breakdown — it's worth the read, especially his note on Bryce Elder's ERA streak ending via a 454-foot Manzardo homer that went farther than any of the Braves' three.

Riley went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Progress is progress in April. Baldwin went 1-for-5, which is a quiet night for him and a career night for most catchers. Braves are 9-5, first in the NL East.

One more thing. Both Atlanta teams won tonight with the same formula: a middle stretch where everything broke open at once. For the Hawks it was the third quarter. For the Braves it was the sixth inning. There's no statistical connection between a 35-point basketball quarter and a 6-run baseball inning, but there is an experiential one — the moment in a game when a crowd stops hoping and starts knowing. Truist Park and State Farm Arena both found that moment tonight. Friday night in Atlanta felt good.