Recap: Cleveland 97, Atlanta 89 (or, “You tryin’ to get the pipe?”)

GIF: JR Smith holsters the pistol pic.twitter.com/jfFMtKS9Pk

— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) May 21, 2015

JR Smith submerged himself in icewater after the game, just so he wouldn’t set his apartment on fire when he got home. Smith was a human torch, scorching the nets for 28 points on 10-16 shooting, including eight three-pointers (a Cavs playoff record). LeBron added 31 points, Tristan and T-Mo chipped in double digit rebounding performances, and the Cavs’ perimeter defense held the Hawks to 4-23 shooting from behind the arc.

After an 18 point lead in the fourth, sparked by JR Swish, the Hawks cut it to 11. The Cavs reverted to their “ball control” offense with eight minutes left and drained the life out of the shot clock on every possession, and eventually wrung the seconds out of the game clock. The Hawks made it close, cutting the Cavs lead to four points with under a minute left, but a King James drive for an uncontested dunk stretched the diff to +6 with just 37 seconds left. Paul Millsap missed a three, and that closed the door for the Hawks.

David Blatt outcoached Mike Budenholzer tonight. The Cavs made a conscious decision to defend the perimeter and deny the Hawks open three pointers. It led to a lot of open drives for Jeff Teague and Dennis Schröder, especially in the second quarter. Fortunately, Cleveland tightened up their defense in the second half, and the Hawks got tired in the fourth.

In Atlanta’s defense, the fourth quarter was interminable. First, we all were sickened by watching DeMarre Carroll go down with a knee injury on a completely innocuous drive to the basket. He planted and hyper-extended, and we all had a knot in our stomach as his teammates carried him off the floor.

Then the officiating crew took EIGHT MINUTES to review a goaltending play that occurred with just under two minutes left. It’s no wonder both teams were gassed. Let’s break down the players.

LeBron James was his normal, brilliant self for three and a half quarters, though his jump shot is currently hanging out with Jimmy Hoffa. LeBron was 10-17 inside the paint and 2-9 outside of it. He got his post game going in the first quarter, getting position, and using that unstoppable jump hook to score. He had his “best player in the world” floor game with 31 points, eight rebounds, and six assists, and his defense was solid throughout, especially in the fourth quarter when he checked Paul Millsap.

But LBJ hijacked the offense during the “ball control” stretch, and it cost the Cavs. It was way too early to go into the four minute offense. The stagnant offense included two shot clock violations and a couple possessions where LeBron held the ball for 22 seconds. It helped Atlanta reel off an 11-1 run and cut the lad to four. …but I don’t hate the strategy. When they do it, the Cavs don’t turn it over, aside from shot clock violations, and they have the grinders to win the possession battle. But it was too early to go into it, and LeBron needs to get deeper position instead of jacking up turnaround fallback jumpers. Also, red hot JR got just one shot in the final eight minutes. That’s daft. LeBron acknowledged the problems post-game, calling it some of his late game offense “nonsense.” He’s still the King though; his dunk punctuated the game when Millsap tried to check him 40 feet from the basket, and Kyle Korver ran for cover.

https://vine.co/v/eAVZQ9b70wl

Paul Millsap finished with 13 points and seven boards, but couldn’t guard LeBron during key possessions, and couldn’t keep Tristan off the boards. He was also 3-11 and hesitant shooting open jumpers. My favorite part of his game was that he got nailed for three moving screen fouls. I screamed “thank god” after one whistle. On some uncalled ones, Paul was basically running a fullback lead play.

Tristan Thompson ate Millsap up inside with constant activity on both ends of the floor. Canadian Dynamite was only credited with two blocks, but I counted at least four during his 14 point, 10 rebound grind. He struggled a bit early when he switched onto guards, but that was by design. The Cavs were content to concede a limited amount of inside baskets if they defended the three point line. Most of his Tristan’s came on putbacks and dumpoffs, but he also had a couple nifty floaters on pick-and-rolls. Thompson was everywhere, switching onto guards, forcing team rebounds, sealing out almost every defensive rebound, and guarding the rim. He controlled possessions, and helped the Cavs to a rebounding surplus of 49-37. He’s a rich man’s Tyrone Hill.

Timofey Mozgov had a very solid 26 minutes with 10 points and 11 boards. Thought to be the Cavs biggest liability before the series, T-Mo struggled covering Horford early, but by game’s end was closing out every jump shooter. Additionally, he had four offensive rebounds, and did a great job of following drivers to the hole and getting putbacks and dumpoffs. He’s earned a postgame brew at the Brew Garden.

Al Horford had 16 points on 8-12 shooting and seven rebounds, but after the first quarter, the Cavs did a really nice job of limiting his touches and forcing him to give the ball up. The Cavs defensive strategy of “let Teague score” helped too. Atlanta went to Horford on the block late, but it was too little/too late as they’d failed to consistently get him the ball in position to take advantage of his mismatches. Let’s hope this continues.

Kyrie Irving still looked slow and hesitant, but he still notched 10 points and six dimes in 27 minutes. Kyrie went 2-3 from the triple line, and his ability to stretch the floor helped the the team’s spacing. The team was still hiding him on defense, and Jeff Teague shook him off easily on more than a couple drives. Cleveland needs his minutes and whatever Kyrie can give them. The Cavs probably have a big temptation to sit him in game two, having recaptured home field, but I say don’t change what’s working.

Jeff Teague dropped a team high 27, but he only had four assists and went 1-6 from three. The Cavs made him a scorer and not a distributor. They could live with his scoring. He also likes to step through and pick up his pivot foot when he stops. I wish someone would call that.

Dennis Schröder formed the other half of a quick and deadly back court, but when the Cavs went under screens on him and either forced him to go left or to be a jump shooter. It helps that Dennis also thinks he’s better than he is. His eyes lit up at the end of the first when he had Delly on him, as if he was insulted by Matt’s mere presence, and Schröder bricked a runner. Dennis was oblivious to the fact that the Cavs had unleashed the subtle defense of the Wombat to guard him.

Wombats are short-legged, muscular, quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia and are approximately 1 meter (40 in) in length, with small, stubby tails…

They generally move slowly. When threatened, however, they can reach up to 40 km/h (25 mph) and maintain that speed for up to 90 seconds. Wombats defend home territories centered on their burrows, and they react aggressively to intruders.

A group of wombats is known as a ‘wisdom’.

Matthew Dellevadova helped contain the German Rondo, and cajole him into 2-10 shooting. With wombats on the brain, Dennis was a game low -13. Delly also fared better on Teague than anyone, and was a part of the crunch time lineup because of his ability to defend. Mad Matt was searching for his offense like the Road Warrior searches for a cause. Delly went 0-6 but added a couple nifty passes and gritty rebounds.

Iman Shumpert didn’t get to try his luck on those two guards because he spent most of his time on Kyle Korver. Korver had no room to strike for most of the game and only got free for nine points and seven boards on 2-4 three point shooting. Offensively, Shump was in trick mode (instead of treat mode). He went 1-6 from the floor. Iman should bounce back next game, and just keep doing what he’s doing on D.

Speaking of Korver, J.R. Smith was insulted that he was being guarded by Kyle. J.R. got started early off a kickout from Delly, and then just kept raining fire. Atlanta, especially Korver, simply could not guard him. JR got his Js in a variety of ways: kickouts, isolations, switches by bigs, and just straight up heat checks. It mattered not. When the Cavs needed buckets, J.R. just unholstered the smoking pistol known as his right hand. As David Blatt said, “When J.R. gets hot, he gets smoking hot” — piping hot, you might say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDgfdygS_pY