CLEVELAND -- Tyronn Lue walked down the hallway after his postgame news conference and loosened his tie, feeling a loss in a non-preseason game for the first time in a long time.

“So much for 82-0,” Lue said, catching a reporter’s eye with a knowing glance, after his Cleveland Cavaliers were defeated by the Atlanta Hawks 110-106 on Tuesday.

The loss snapped the Cavs’ 6-0 start to the season and nine-game win streak, if you count Games 5-7 of the NBA Finals, in which they shocked the Golden State Warriors to win the championship.

It was a ridiculous thing to say, of course, and Lue knew it. It isn't like the Cavs were going to lose their swagger after one loss to a Hawks team they had beaten 11 times in a row before Tuesday, including two playoff sweeps.

LeBron James couldn't rally the Cavaliers, who were a dismal 11-for-42 from 3-point range against the Hawks on Tuesday night. David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

Still, the coach’s attitude reflected the outlook he had just criticized his team for when he spoke to reporters about Cleveland's falling down 18 in the first half against Atlanta and not being able to complete the comeback.

“I just thought we didn’t respect the guys,” Lue said of the Hawks. “We won 11 straight, and we thought we’d come in and beat this team. They had pride. They always play hard and scrap. And once we decided to play, it was too late. We had to expend so much energy trying to get back in the game twice. And then, when you dig yourself a hole that big, it’s hard to come back from.”

To hear Lue’s confidence to vacillate from cocky to concern echoed the conversation that went down in the Cavs’ locker room at halftime, when they found themselves down 53-42, thanks in large part to a stat sheet that read 4-for-21 in the 3-point column.

“Some guys were saying, ‘Mix it up,’” said J.R. Smith, who finished 2-for-10 from 3. “Some guys were saying, ‘That’s what we do.’ So it’s just a matter of, in this situation, you have to know who is right. For me, I’m going to keep shooting regardless. Some guys, you might want to mix it up and start dribbling or try to penetrate or something. But I have the ultimate confidence in my shot. I’m not going to stop shooting. I don’t care if I miss 100. I’m going to shoot 101 and 2 and 3 and 4, 5, 6, 7. So I think it’s just a matter of the confidence you have in yourself, if anything.”

Kyrie Irving, who shot an anemic 1-for-7 from deep, was on Smith’s side of the discussion.

“Keep shooting,” Irving said. “Keep letting them go. I mean, it’s not like we can celebrate when we go 18-for-34 or something like that, and when we don’t, we just take our attitude and kind of throw it away if we’re not shooting well that night. Keep launching them, man. We have specific shooters that we have on this team to just do that or make plays for other guys. We got incredible shots tonight -- they just weren’t falling.”

Indeed, the Cavs came into the night leading the NBA with 13.3 made 3s per game. The last time they played Atlanta, they set a record for most 3s in a playoff series of six games or fewer when they hit 77 in their four-game sweep.

Yet after Tuesday, Channing Frye, whose three 3-pointers matched the combined total for Smith and Irving, was calling for an adjustment in approach.

“We’re not going to be drop-dead killers from the 3-point line every night,” he said. “That’s just not who we are, and I think we need to continue to be able to finish at the basket and make extra passes and find a nice flow offensively and defensively. We just got to pick it up.”

Cleveland made things respectable in the second half, including drawing to within two late in the third quarter and again with 25.2 seconds left. The Cavs' defense forced 10 second-half turnovers by the Hawks and turned those into 14 points. Their defense fueled their offense, instead of the other way around, as it was to start the game, when sputtering scoring led to lazy D.

It wasn't enough, but it was hardly an existential crisis for the Cavaliers. One loss is simply one loss, especially when it comes against a Hawks team of which LeBron James said, “Toward the end of the season, they’ll be right there ready for a playoff series with anyone.”

Still, this is new territory for this Cavaliers team. The pressure that the championship goal created the past two seasons informed every reaction they had as a group. Wins felt good only if they came with some sense of palpable improvement for the long haul. Losses were excruciating, obviously, and a reminder of just how far the Cavs were from the prize they coveted.

Now? Any regular-season win will pale in comparison to the feeling this team had in June. Any loss can be digested as more of a bump in the road than a referendum on their shortcomings.

The Cavs learned what it took to win a championship. Now they have to learn how they are supposed to take wins and losses as defending champions.