Hawks let prime chance slip away as Cavaliers played 'OK game'
CLEVELAND –- The Atlanta Hawks came in saying they were a better team than the one that last faced LeBron James in the playoffs.
So, naturally, the Hawks came out shooting blanks on Monday night, falling behind by 18 in the third quarter and looking like LeBron road kill again. But then Dennis Schroder got hotter than he ever has in his career and the Hawks began burying shots.
Suddenly, that lead that was as big as James’ mural on the side of a building just across the way from Quicken Loans Arena was gone.
Atlanta stormed back and led the Cleveland Cavaliers 88-87 with 4:28 left.
“We had momentum,” Paul Millsap said.
Not just that; the Hawks smelled the scent of a first-ever playoff win over James. It was within their grasp. And then it was snatched away in the form of two massive offensive rebounds by Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith during one critical possession with less than three minutes remaining. The result was James taking a Kyrie Irving pass, driving inside and scoring while being fouled.
James celebrated by flexing his right bicep while pounding it with his left hand. Yet again, King James was too strong and too much for the Hawks to handle.
Atlanta wilted down the stretch and finished with that all-too-familiar feeling of losing to James. Cleveland took Game 1, 104-93, beating Atlanta for a ninth straight time in the postseason.
While the Hawks were saying they had several positives to pull from this loss, like how they fought back admirably, James seemed to really put things in perspective long after the Hawks left the arena.
“We played an OK game,” James said in a news conference. “I don’t think we played to our standards. The first game is always kind of a feel-out and we look forward to the challenges of Wednesday.”
James was right. This game, by his standards, wasn’t one of his normal demolish-the-Hawks type of game. He finished with 25 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds and 5 steals. Those are all-world numbers for most basketball stars, but a notch below the ridiculous standard he set in the Eastern Conference finals last season with an average of 30.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 9.3 assists in a sweep of the Hawks.
It felt as if James really wasn’t pushed until late in the third and early in the fourth, when Atlanta used a 26-7 run to take its first lead of the game with eight minutes remaining.
Schroder, the man Boston fans loved to hate in the first round, produced a scintillating playoff career-high 27 points, 15 coming in the second half, when he and Irving (21 points) engaged in a shooting duel.
With 4:28 left, Al Horford, who has struggled with his shot in four of his past five postseason games, scored on a driving hook shot to give Atlanta an 88-87 lead. Tension could be felt at “The Q.”
But then James hit Smith for what the Hawks’ Kyle Korver described as an “amazing [3-point] shot.” On the next possession, James found Kevin Love, who was fouled by Kent Bazemore on a corner 3-point attempt. Love made two of the three foul shots.
James followed that up by stealing the ball from Schroder. Smith missed a jumper, but Thompson grabbed the rebound. James also missed a jumper, but Smith chased down the rebound. Then Irving hit James for the three-point play. The offensive rebounds gave the Cavs the ball for more than a minute, and by the end of that excruciating possession, Cleveland led 95-88 with 2:09 left.
“Oh, they hurt,” said Bazemore, who shined with 16 points and 12 rebounds, but missed 7 of 10 three-point shots. “Offensive rebounds are huge in this league. Tristan Thompson killed us last year by getting those second opportunities. They hurt. It is definitely frustrating.”
The Hawks made matters worse by missing six straight shots and turning the ball over three times from the point that they led 88-87. They ended the drought with a meaningless 3.
Now, it’s back to the drawing board for the Hawks, who must figure out a way to start better and get Korver and starting point guard Jeff Teague (eight points) going.
They made James and the Cavs sweat a bit, but ultimately could not make shots or get enough stops or grab a meaningful rebound when it mattered most.
“We had so many opportunities there in the last four minutes,” Bazemore said. “… Even though we had a chance to win, we did so much stuff wrong. One or two things that we had done differently and [it is] a totally different ballgame and we are sitting here up 1-0 instead of down 0-1.”
If you’re going to be a serious contender in the East and challenge King James, you can’t make these types of mistakes when the game is on the line. Remember, this was just an “OK” game for the Cavs, according to James. Cleveland had been off for eight days after sweeping Detroit in the first round. This was the Hawks’ chance to steal Game 1.
It likely will only get harder from here on out because James could really put his foot on the pedal on Wednesday.
“They won the game more than we lost the game,” said Korver, who was held to just one shot and three points, all coming on free throws. “But we definitely felt like we had our chances.”
“They’re a great team,” Korver added when asked if the Hawks feel any closer toward solving their LeBron hex. “They beat a lot of people. It’s not just us. Are we getting closer to getting over the hump? I don’t know. … We definitely got to get that win first.”
