Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Joe Johnson scored 29 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out five assists as Atlanta held off Cleveland, 90-81, at Philips Arena.

Josh Smith added 19 points for the Hawks, who snapped a four-game skid and won for the first time in the new year. Josh Childress and Marvin Williams chipped in 12 points each, while Al Horford finished with 10 points and 15 boards.

"We knew it was gonna be a dogfight coming in," said Johnson. "Coming into tonight's game we'd been on a bit of a losing streak, and then we came out and we got off to a pretty slow start. We picked it up and rallied at the end. We were able to get a lead in the second half and we maintained it."

LeBron James had a game-high 31 points to go along with 10 rebounds for the Cavs, who had a four-game win streak snapped. Devin Brown added 12 points off the bench, while Drew Gooden had a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.

Leading by four at the break, the Hawks started to pull away in the third quarter. Using a 17-3 spurt, they built the lead to 52-35, with a Johnson free throw ending the run before Anderson Varejao's hook shot at the other end of the floor stopped the bleeding.

Cleveland scored the final seven points, but still trailed, 65-52, heading to the fourth.

The visitors made it a six-point game down the stretch, 71-65, on James' driving layup, but the Hawks quickly rebuilt their double-digit lead by scoring the next six points.

The Cavs again inched their way back, closing within five on a Damon Jones trey with 2:32 remaining. Atlanta, though, sealed the game at the line.

"We had a nice start, but we didn't play well in the first half," said James. "We shot like 20-something odd percent in the first half. They shot 40 percent and we were only down four. We didn't play well. When you're down on somebody else's court and you make a run, which we was gonna do, any little play they made was gonna kill us. We played good, we played hard, but we didn't play well enough to win. We made too many mistakes."

The Cavs opened with a 14-point first quarter, marking a season-low, but it was still one better than Atlanta's 13 points. Cleveland started the game on a 14-6 run, capped by a Gooden dunk at 5:04, but the Hawks got back in it.

Atlanta surged ahead in the second using an 11-5 run to open the stanza. Williams' driving layup capped the spurt, putting the Hawks up, 23-15.

The home squad continued to carry that momentum and it was 36-32 at halftime.