Recap: Cavs 109, Hawks 94 (Or, The King Efficiently Assures Number One)

The Cavaliers rocked the old “Miracle of Richfield” jerseys looking to lock up the Eastern Conference one seed. Iman Shumpert and Mo Williams were both inactive nursing knee injuries. Timofey Mozgov enjoyed the comfort of a folding chair for all 48 minutes after Ty Lue “just wanted to” make Thompson the starter from now until eternity. Those guys didn’t play. Mr. LeBron Raymone James certainly did. And he was wondrous. Let’s get to it.

1st Quarter:

The Cavs must have thought that it was a 7:30 start. A blown coverage in transition and two Bazemore pull-up threes later, Lue called a timeout to remind the guys that it was, in fact, game time. LeBron finally got the Cavaliers into the scoring column almost three minutes into the quarter with a mini-flurry of patented LeBronisms. The King stole a cross-court pass and dunked, drilled his standard left wing three, hit a surprising right wing three and promptly missed the following heat-check. Death and taxes(unless you know some guys in Panama).

The Hawks were incredibly active on the defensive end. They racked up four blocks in the first half of the quarter and had multiple poke steals. The Bazemore/James bout was followed by Teague/Irving. Jeff Teague had one of the nicest drives of the year as he went electric car on LeBron. Seriously, how did he accelerate from zero to bucket that quickly? Teague completed the play with a nasty ball fake that left LeBron in flyby mode. He continued to get into the lane at will, effortlessly blowing by Cleveland statues. Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, Kyrie Irving dominated action, using Tristan to give him space for his jumper. Kyrie wasn’t going to the hole and Tristan wasn’t rolling, but at least Kyrie used Tristan’s solid picks to create space for the shot. Baby steps, I guess. The style contrast between the two players was stark. Austin Carr wistfully described Teague’s game, “And he uses his dribble properly. He goes straight ahead when he goes by you.”

Mathew Dellavedova checked in for Love as the first substitution. Delly immediately ran a left side PnR with LeBron. For the first time in ages, Mathew made a decisive drive to score off the pick action and finished a nice little runner. His hesitation game is great, but sometimes he needs to just go quickly. It was a sight for sore eyes. Kyrie knocked down a triple and finished the quarter with 12 points. After one, 26-22 Hawks.

2nd Quarter:

The Cavs began the quarter with yet another new lineup: Delly, McRae, RJ, Bron, and Frye. The early returns weren’t bad. Fyre drilled a right corner three ball off of a customarily perfect pass from The King. A LeBron/Delly PnR gave Mathew free passage to the bucket with the Hawks overplaying the pass. Directly after, LeBron hit him with another accurate pass for a right-wing Delly-Tre. That bucket gave the Cavs their first lead of the night at 30-28. Kent Bazemore was having none of it. Still immersed in flames, the Old Dominion product drilled a couple more threes to return the lead to the Hawks.

Jordan McRae assisted LeBron for a dunk with a nice baseline drive and drop. He also acquitted himself relatively well on the defensive end, making the correct switches and battling through screens. Frye hit a pretty jump hook against Korver to finish the lineup’s time on the floor for a zero net score. 38-34, Hawks.

Kyrie, J.R., and Kevin all checked back in for the rest of the quarter. LeBron played some bullyball on Teague with a strongman And-1. The following possession, Kyrie missed LeBron on the roll, and then didn’t pass James the ball with Teague pinned behind him post switch. Instead, Irving elected to hoist a three ball. Uncle Sigh. More Kent Bazemore three bombs sizzled the nets, giving him 21 first half points.

Kevin Love then showed up to the party. After getting whistled for an offensive foul on his post up(I loved the aggression), Kevin drilled two right side three balls. Those shots led to a J.R. dunk moments later. With LeBron handling on the right wing, Kevin and J.R. screened for each other on the weakside. The Hawks were afraid of both guys from deep and blew their coverage. J.R. back-cut to the rim and LeBron found him for the dunk. Simple and pretty.

The Cavs defense began to swarm. Tristan and LeBron were especially active in rotation with Kevin Love cleaning the glass. Another James jumper preceded an offensive action I don’t recall from the Cavs all year. LeBron motioned for Kyrie and Tristan to get into horn position(on the elbows). Horns, itself, hasn’t been too rare, but I don’t recall many instances with Kyrie on the elbow. LeBron fed Tristan the ball on the left nail, Kyrie came from the right elbow around for the dribble hand-off heading to the rim. Tristan rolled and Kyrie hit him for the alley-oop. Then Kyrie followed that beauty with a mistimed foul that gave Teague three free throws to end the half. 51-45 Cavs.

3rd Quarter:

LeBron James started the third quarter in rim attack mode. James hit two early driving layups to set the tone. The second bucket was one of what seemed like 25 And-1s in the quarter. Tristan finished one of his own after Love found him on a sweet big to big feed. TT followed up that nice offensive play with a ridiculous block against Paul Millsap.

This one was actually clean, unlike the first half block when Tristan was correctly called for a hand on the shoulder. Fred and Austin didn’t see TT’s hand on Humphries’ non-shooting arm. LeBron converted the next possession with more bullyball in the post to push the lead to 63-53.

Jeff Teague spent the next few minutes destroying Kyrie Irving. Kyrie misplayed screens, got beat off the dribble and wandered around off ball to allow the Hawks to bring the game within two points. LeBron was doing his best on the offensive end to make up for Kyrie’s defensive dumpster fire. The King hit his left-wing 3-ball special and converted another And-1. Thankfully, Dellavedova checked in for Tristan and allowed Kyrie to guard someone else. The Delly/Bron PnR continued to be fruitful as Mathew fed LeBron’s roll for his favorite reverse dunk. Dennis Schröder then tried to pressure Delly full-court. Our Wombat shook him and kept Dennis on this back until completing his own And-1. Seriously, the And-1 thing was getting out of control on both ends. Kyrie did get some buckets in the period to partially atone for his defense. In all, the Cavs rolled a 22-9 wave over Atlanta. LeBron had 19 points in the period and was generally amazing. Heading to the final frame, 90-75, Cleveland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H6C87duyro

4th Quarter:

Delly, Kyrie, RJ, TT, and Frye looked to finish the Hawks off early in the quarter. It didn’t happen immediately. Teague scored a couple tough buckets and Cavs didn’t get anything easy. Still, Kyrie was doing his one man show and it was moderately successful. Kyrie had a great push in transition with a lovely finish off high glass. The Hawks called a timeout after Irving splashed a three to push the lead to 17 points.

Out of the timeout, Kyrie continued his Starbury highlight film. An array of one-on-one moves, one-on-three, or one-on-five netted Uncle Drew some oohs and ahs from the crowd. Irving finally hit Tristan on a couple pocket passes and even had a possession with two offensive rebounds. It prevented me pulling out the few hairs that remain on my head. The Hawks never got the run they needed and Coach Bud pulled his guys.

Thoughts:

LeBron was at his ridiculous best. He had 34 points on only 16 shots. He rightfully has confidence in his left-wing three, making two of three from that spot again tonight. LeBron’s aggression going toward the basket was undeniable and led to countless opportunities for himself or teammates. He’s gotten better as a roll man over the last couple months. He and Delly are shredding defenses with that action. Bron rolls, catches and finishes or starts the ball movement that leads to wide open three point attempts. His left hand development around the rim continues to amaze. He seems healthy and spry. I am often hard on LeBron to play up to his potential. When he does, it thrills me.

Unfortunately, Kyrie had the opposite effect. His 35 points came on 28 shots. While I am pleased that his three ball is falling more, this kind of one man offense is not sustainable and not threatening to a good playoff defense. His highlights are impressive, but there are many justifiable reasons why we are hard on him here at C:TB. He continues to mishandle basic basketball concepts. He misses wide open rollers, or simple doesn’t use the screen. It was clear that Tristan either decided or was told that he should just set the screen and wait to see what Kyrie would do before rolling himself. It is a pragmatic approach from Tristan, but golly. On a simple weave that is designed to allow Kyrie to catch and immediately go into a high Pick and Roll, he catches the ball, and STOPS to thwart any and all advantage that was created. It is just plain dumb. Defensively, we are all tired of seeing him lazily jog around, or maybe worse, look active, but get tricked to the high side of every play. The crowd loves his Starbury impersonation, and he is smiley when he is getting “his”. But it isn’t good team basketball. Here are his highlights for those who want to pretend only “gettin’ buckets” is important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyaf1oMVxVM&nohtml5=False

Kevin Love had a solid floor game despite not getting many of his paltry eight shots to fall. His rebounding and defensive positioning during the third quarter surge were crucial.

Tristan continues to own the Hawks. He and Love combined to limit Millsap to 3-14 shooting. Paul must have nightmares about Tristan’s friendly face after what the Canadian has done to him the past year.

The Cavs also did a great job against Kyle Korver. The sharpshooter only got one bucket. That came off a double screen that was drawn up at halftime. He only got five shots total. To be fair, Korver and the Hawks did the same thing to J.R.

Until next time.