Hawks convincingly best Cavs in battle between East favorites
The Cleveland Cavaliers have appeared to solve many of the issues that plagued them in the early portions of this season. Heading into Friday’s road contest with the NBA-leading Atlanta Hawks, the Cavs had won 20 of their last 24 on their way to claiming third place in the East. Based on both teams’ current position and health relative to their rivals, it looks prudent to project them as the favorites to face off in the Eastern Conference Finals. If anything, it might have even appeared sensible to claim that the star-laden Cavaliers would be likely to top the more balanced Hawks in a seven-game series.
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After Friday’s matchup, it will be a lot more difficult to bet against Atlanta. The Hawks controlled the game on their way to a 106-97 victory, improving their record to 49-12 and making a strong case that their relative lack of established playoff winners will not harm them in big games this spring. This game-clinching chasedown block by Jeff Teague on Kyrie Irving with 1:37 left served as an affection exclamation point on the win:
The Hawks, wearing throwback jerseys in honor of new statue subject Dominique Wilkins, put forth a complete performance, the likes of which we’ve come to expect from this group over the course of the season. Atlanta got out to a 36-19 lead after one quarter on the strength of better than 70 percent shooting from the field. Cleveland worked their way back into the game over the next few quarters and even grabbed the lead several minutes after halftime, suggesting that they would be able to win simply by knocking down enough threes and relying on the transcendent talents of LeBron James and (with less frequency) Kyrie Irving.
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Yet the Hawks handled the Cavaliers in the fourth quarter, just as they have performed well in crunch time so many times this season. The blueprint should be relatively familiar at this point — the Hawks work to get the best shots possible; get enough athletic, game-changing plays from Teague and others to force the issue; and simply make fewer mistakes than the opposition.
The stats tell part of the story from Friday. Seven Hawks scored in double figures, with none posting more than Al Horford’s 19. They shot 51.2 percent from the field despite a below-average 6-of-21 mark from beyond the arc, protected the paint and essentially nullified Timofey Mozgov (six points from the line and three rebounds in 21 minutes), and allowed none of the Cavaliers top players to shoot 50 percent or better.
It’s not the sexiest form of basketball around, but there is something overwhelming and exciting about it simply due to the constancy of effort and ongoing effectiveness of the execution. Atlanta plays with a confidence and faith in their own abilities that few teams can replicate. There is never much of a feeling that they will need a superhuman effort to win. Instead, they just do.
To be fair, the Cavaliers can take some solace in knowing that they didn’t play particularly well. Their 13-of-38 shooting from three-point range included a number of missed open looks, and neither LeBron nor Kyrie performed to their capability. But the Hawks force opponents into curiously bad nights often enough that it’s not entirely a matter of bad luck. This team is not a good story likely to fade come April — they’re a legitimate contender. Underestimate them at your own peril.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
