ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Hawks aren't prone to emotional outbursts. They'll get pumped up by a big play, but with a few exceptions, they're a group inspired more by professional pride than hot adrenaline.

Not one Hawk took exception to this characterization on Friday, even after Atlanta toppled a favored Cleveland team, 106-97, in what might have been the biggest regular-season win in franchise history.

Kyle Korver found the suggestion that the Hawks were less emotional than the median NBA team amusing. He laughed, before thinking about it for a second.

"I think probably," Korver said. "I think we approach it with a businesslike attitude."

All week long, the Hawks pooh-poohed the notion that a showdown with a Cavs team that's handicapped as the favorite in the Eastern Conference despite trailing Atlanta by more than 10 games was anything eventful. It was the usual sports-speak -- "Just another game," said virtually every living Atlanta Hawk. Yet somehow the team's measured posture wasn't entirely unconvincing.

Kyle Korver was tied up for much of the game, but then let loose after sinking a big 3-pointer. Dale Zanine/USA TODAY Sports

On Friday night, the Hawks maintained their cool temperament, but they injected just enough emotion to meet the moment. They didn't betray their collective identity -- but they added a little jolt.

"It's fair to say [it was more emotional]," Al Horford said. "The intensity was higher. Anytime the intensity goes up, emotions are going to flare as well. That's what happened."

Horford got into it with Timofey Mozgov in a testy third quarter when the Cavs center shoved him in the back after a J.R. Smith 3-pointer. Horford is generally a cool cat, but teammates had to step in to pull him away from the scene as the Hawks called timeout.

Korver, he of the businesslike attitude, also went Casual Friday. The sharpshooter has been mired in a slump for the better part of a month. Nobody is panicking, but easy dismissals like "regression to the mean" have been subsumed recently by legitimate concern. On Friday, he was 0-for-3 with two turnovers heading into the fourth quarter.

"I've been off to a slow start every game since January," he said after a loooong sigh. "You do all these interviews about 50-50-90 [field goal, 3-point and free throw percentages] and you talk about shooting for a month. I don't know what it is."

But in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, Korver drained a couple of 3-pointers, the second of which restored the Hawks' lead to 10 and forced a Cleveland timeout. Korver, one of the league's chillest of bros, unleashed an uncharacteristic primal scream, clinching both fists.

"If you ask guys individually, they all came in with a little chip on their shoulders," Hawks forward Paul Millsap said. "Kyle hasn't been shooting the ball well. He saw a few go in, so he got emotional. So if you go down the line, every guy had a different reason."

For DeMarre Carroll and Kent Bazemore, that chip can be attributed to their defensive assignment -- LeBron Raymone James. At Hawks shootaround, Carroll waxed on the challenge of managing expectations as a defender when you're covering the best player on the planet.

"Tony Allen always told me, he said you can't stop guys in the league, but you can make it harder for them," Carroll said Friday morning in anticipation of LeBron. "[James] is the best player in the NBA right now. You know you just make it hard for him. Wear him out, get him tired. Mom always told me fatigue made a coward out of you, so hopefully I can get him tired and use my energy and be active."

Carroll, along with Bazemore, dazzled as defenders, holding James to 18 points on 5-for-13 shooting from the field, and 7-for-8 from the stripe. Per usual, the Hawks threw a slew of different coverages at the Cavs. Atlanta's heady big men, Horford and Millsap, supplemented those coverages with aggressive guerrilla attacks when they saw opportunities, and the help was strong behind them.

"A lot of teams don't have the ability to do it," James said. "Their ability to have Horford, Millsap and those guys that move their feet really well, Mike Scott -- they do a good job. It was the first time they used that game plan on us -- they kind of caught us by surprise, so, down the road if we get to that point, we'll be all right."

The Hawks got a little greedy in the third quarter -- and paid for it by surrendering 36 points in 24 possessions to the Cavs -- but for most of the night, Atlanta defended Cleveland's ball screens aggressively and rotated behind those actions with precision.

Bazemore is a gem, perhaps the livest wire on the Hawks' roster. When he hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to break a tie midway through the third quarter, he had a few words for the Cavs' bench just behind him. Upon delivery from Bazemore's mouth, Kendrick Perkins moved as fast as he has since arriving in Cleveland, rising from his seat on the bench to answer back.

"It's basketball," Bazemore said after the game. "You're in the moment. Kendrick Perkins was over there, like, 'Don't look at our bench!' It's just fun basketball ... They're big boys. They try to bully the skinny guy. You've got to stick up for yourself."

The Hawks didn't beat the Cavaliers on Friday night because they tapped into an emotional reserve or roused a burning fire. They won because they ran their stuff with the usual exactitude, and allowed Carroll and Bazemore to go at James with abandon because the coordinated defense was tight behind them.

But there was a little edge to the Hawks against a Cleveland team that puts more conventional talent on the floor and is now the oddsmakers' choice to romp in the East. The Hawks would never deign to admit it -- not businesslike -- but this one meant something.