Recap: Cavs 100, Hawks 99 (or, Klutch Jump Balls)
2016-05-09
LeBron James embraces Kevin Love following the latter’s improvement to 12-0 in the postseason.
The Cleveland Cavaliers successfully completed their Eastern Conference Semifinals sweep of the Atlanta Hawks in a thrilling 100-99 victory. Closely contested throughout, the game was ultimately decided not on a shot, but on a jump ball in the final two seconds. Both teams played with urgency and traded leads in the final minutes, but the Cavs’ onslaught proved too much as they were able to outlast a desperate Atlanta home team.
Surely, you took a peek at the InstaCap video on the game posted by Cavs: The Blog’s own Tom Pestak for a quick look on what went down in the game. After all was said and done, Cavs and Hawks players alike no doubt ran home to their mommies. After all, it was Mother’s Day!
First Quarter:
In a sign of good things to come for the Cavs, Tristan Thompson won the tipoff and started Cleveland off with the ball… Both teams looked to build momentum early. In what often suffices as momentum for the Cavs these days, JR Smith hit (yet another) contested three where a hand was right in his grill. Atlanta called a timeout to contemplate life and avoid giving JR a chance to heat up. Smith acquiesced by resorting to defense, stealing the ball immediately following the timeout. The Cavs could not capitalize.
Unforced turnovers plagued the Cavs for much of the first quarter, including a bad pass from LeBron to a diving Kevin Love, who fumbled the ball away. Love continued to butter his fingers, losing another LeBron pass out of bounds; on the following defensive possession he somewhat made up for his offensive gaffes with an almost-steal off of a post pass to Al Horford, only Love stepped out of bounds.
With 6:11 remaining in the quarter, Atlanta’s Kris Humphries — he of Kardashian Heartache Past — entered into the game as the Philips Arena played the Undertaker’s theme music*. Humphries built off of his strong Game 3 performance, making a big impact in the game with a little bit of everything: hitting a three, grabbing a strong rebound, and generally playing disruptive defense – highlighted by a gargantuan block on the Cavs’ Richard Jefferson. The Hawks’ Paul Millsap also had himself a great quarter with 11 points and a punctuating 25-foot three-pointer to end the period. Hawks lead 36-27.
*actual song selection at arena unconfirmed
Second Quarter:
Both teams continued to play sloppily with turnovers-a-plenty, but the Cavs were able to find ways to score and chip at the Flying Birds’ lead. The Hawks, however, won the battle of physicality this round, as Cleveland seemed to miss the rebounding of Tristan Thompson when he sat during the quarter’s bookends, and Al Horford even got in a good smack on Matthew Dellavedova.
Love air-balled a three-pointer and continued to look horrendous on offense. Horford then hit a long two over Delly, who kept finding himself switched onto Horford in a mismatch made in Anna Horford’s heaven. Eventually, Love redeemed his poor start by hitting a couple threes, Kyrie Irving completed a patented Kyridiculous finish in traffic, and JR Smith continued his excellent defensive play on the Hawks’ Kyle Korver with a block. Kevin Love found himself isolated on defense throughout the quarter. Even though he surrendered some points to Atlanta, his intensity level remained high on that end of the floor — which is worth something.
The Hawks allowed the Cavs to creep back into the game by missing a lot of shots, but Cleveland had trouble taking advantage with some awful finishing around the rim. LeBron twice failed to capitalize on post-ups against Thabo Sefalosha. The Cavs heroics in the frame included a highlight full-court pass from Love to LeBron…
…Kevin and James (but not Kevin James) attempted the same exact play the very next Hawks possession, but LeBron slipped on the hardwood. The home crowd oohed and ahhed at a Kyrie Krossover + Bucket, the Hawks secured three offensive rebounds without a score, and Kyrie took a poor long-range shot to end the second frame. Hawks lead 58-56.
Third Quarter:
Neither teams’ lead would exceed six points the rest of the contest. In the third quarter, defense ratcheted up several notches and buckets were difficult to come by, underscored by a four minute period during which a total of four baskets were made. Kevin Love was still unable to finish shots inside, but no matter. He and LeBron hit back-to-back three-pointers, and then Love hit another, and another… and another and another for five in the quarter alone.
Several passes from LeBron went through the hands of his teammates, continuing a game-long trend, but the Cavs’ Big Three came to play in Quarter Three as all three drew defenders’ attention and Love showed up big on the boards. The Hawks would not go quietly into the night, though. Following a Kris Humphries offensive rebound that led to a Sefalosha three, Kardashian-Humphries blocked the King, which led to an Atlanta fastbreak and score off a tip-in. (*Humph!* is the sound I imagine Tyronn Lue made at these plays).
With the game knotted at 75-75 with just over two minutes in the third, Love pulled off a spectacular four-point play aided by a head fake from beyond the arc:
The quarter ended with a LeBron jumper, an unsuccessful Hawks possession, and confident Cavs D. The wine and gold outscored the home team 25-19 in the frame to lead 81-77.
Fourth Quarter:
Crunch time: things got fun. Hawks reserve guard Dennis Schröder drew first blood by picking Kyrie Irving’s pocket and scoring a two-pointer. Both teams visibly picked up the intensity on defense in a do-or-die situation for the Hawks. The Cavs’ bench squad + Kyrie maintained a slim lead… guys from both teams were hitting the deck to secure loose balls.
As the clock ticked, it was Schröder who stayed in the game over normal starter Jeff Teague. It would seem to be the correct call by Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer as Schröder would score 11 of his team’s final 22 points while adding a couple assists and steals as well. Cleveland tried to take advantage of its opponent’s aggressiveness by utilizing pump fakes outside the arc on multiple occasions; this tactic didn’t result in four-point plays like the one Love drew earlier, but kept the Hawks defense off balance and allowed some Cavs shooters to reset their shots. The Cavs and Hawks continued to trade scores, and the game’s point differential stayed within three virtually the rest of the game.
With 2:00 remaining, the umlaut wound up with Kevin Love on an island… Love was summarily smoked for a layup and missed a three on the Cavs’ ensuing possession. Schröder hit yet another driving layup to put the Hawks up by one point. 20 second timeout, Cleveland. Coming out of the TO, LeBron James was able to get in the paint to attempt a layup but got rejected by Al Horford. James immediately secured his own offensive rebound two times and almost a third time when he knocked the ball out of bounds… or was it Horford who knocked it out? Upon video review, the call was reversed — it WAS Horford! CAVS BALL!
In a decidedly un-epic fashion, the Cavs took a 1 point lead with 1:15 to go when LeBron attempted a layup that was goaltended off the glass by Atlanta’s Paul Millsap. Tristan Thompson came up with a big-time block on Dennis Schröder, displaying nice patience as he waited for the guard to rise for the shot attempt before leaving the ground himself. Cleveland called another timeout to bring in the Maraud Squad lineup of LeBron, Love, Kyrie, Love, and JR Smith — but they could very well have been the Teletubby Squad as LBJ squared up mano-e-mano with Millsap (in the jump shot desert of the right corner), jabbed a few times, and drilled a long oh-no-he-didn’t-two-point-rainmaker that may have collaterally cursed Atlanta’s crops with floods.
But Dennis Schröder said “I don’t grow any dang crops!” and drove through the Cavs defense once again for a layup, bringing the Wine & Gold’s lead back down to one point. On the next Cavs possession, the Hawks played the scouting report perfectly by going under a screen to goad LeBron into taking a three with 0:14 remaining. LeBron missed.
Schröder valiantly attempted to win the game by driving into the teeth of Cleveland’s defense one last time, but this time got entangled with LeBron and several others, resulting in a jump ball. Have you ever seen a playoff game’s final possession decided on a jump ball? If not, this is what it looked like:
LeBron tipped it over J.R.’s head to the right corner, and J.R. dove and slapped the ball back in (trying to throw it off Horford’s leg?) and landed in Mo Williams‘ lap as the ball bounced into Paul Millsap’s hands. Millsap’s desperate three-point heave clanged off the rim, but wasn’t fired off in time anyway. Game. Set. Match.
Cavs 100, Hawks 99.
=====================================================
Individual Notes:
Kevin Love – The night belonged to Kevin Love. About one year after his first postseason experience was cut short, Love has shown the world why he was once considered among the very elite NBA players before being traded to Cleveland. All he’s done is post a double-double in eight straight games through two playoff series and improve his overall postseason record to 12-0. Yawn. And all he did was score a game-high 27 points aided by eight three-point makes (on 15 such attempts) and record 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and a team-high +/- of +14 in 37 minutes of play. Snore.
To me, though, the real stats to look at are 1-10 shooting on two-point shots and two turnovers. Why highlight these numbers? Because it wasn’t always pretty for Kevin. He had some very ugly spots in the game, especially early. This is after a Game 3 where he got immediately Vine’d for a bad defensive possession in which he slipped and fell. All these things were working against Mr. Love, but he just. kept. coming.
Whether it was hitting open looks, passing deftly, setting screens, diving for loose balls, or scrapping for steals, Love was fully engaged the entire duration of the game. When one aspect of his play drops off, he has the talent to pick up other areas of play. He is a high IQ player who understands where to be and what the team needs at a given moment. He’s a versatile big man who impacts games in multiple fashions, and he will be invaluable moving forward into the tougher rounds of the playoffs as long as he keeps this up.
Kyrie Irving – You might notice there are not a ton of notes on Kyrie for this recap. Aside from a couple of his standard dazzling forays to the rim, there weren’t too many individual plays where he stood out. And yet he scored 21 points on 8-16 shooting with 8 assists? With so much attention being paid to LeBron and Kevin Love, Kyrie was able to play the Silent Assassin. One of the league’s great bucket getters was killing them softly, Sunday afternoon
LeBron James – A near triple double, a dagger jumper, and cool leadership are just another day in the office for James. LeBron’s three-point shot cooled off from what it had been the rest of this series, but his ability to get to the rim and pass still stretched the defense regardless of whether his shots go in. There seemed to be some trouble finishing for LeBron, and it’s hard to say if that was due to a hands-off referee crew or the 31-year old’s exhaustion. The long layover between series will do the King some good. Plus, in addition to all the game-winning buckets he’s scored and passes he’s passed, he can now add a game-winning jump ball to his Klutch (see what I did there?) repertoire. That’s pretty cool!
JR Smith – What more praise could we possibly heap on this guy? His shooting barrage from downtown this postseason — like the Cavs as a whole — is unlike anything the league has ever seen. Even when his shot isn’t falling (1-4 from three in Game 4), he’s getting it done on the defensive end, tallying a couple blocks, a steal, and more smothering defense on Kyle Korver. He’s been a huge part of the Cavs 8-0 mark this postseason.
Tyronn Lue – Don’t look now, but Ty has now knocked off two of the most respected coaches in the league through two rounds. Sure, it helps when you have a LeBron James on your team, but Lue is putting his players in the right position to succeed and contribute based off their strengths. The Cavs are clicking, healthy, and comfortable, and Lue deserves a lot of credit.
Matthew Dellavedova has his moments but hasn’t looked especially good in the Hawks series as his shooting has fallen off a cliff, scoring only nine points the entire series… Iman Shumpert finally started to hit some shots with 2-4 three-point shooting… Channing Frye cooled off some and hit “only” 2-of-4 three-point attempts — how dare he!… Richard Jefferson saw only four minutes of play in Game 4…
Thoughts:
-Part of it was Atlanta’s scheme, but you could see the gravity from Leb and Love as defenders get sucked toward their spots on the floor… Could be a reason Kyrie can go off for 21 points and still go unnoticed. Three Cavs players are capable of drawing a LOT of attention.
-The Cavs, and LeBron in particular, are receiving very few foul calls in some of these playoff games. Game 4 was no exception, with James only going to the line twice despite 14 of his 23 shots coming from the paint. Is this a unique case or a league-wide trend of how fouls are being called? Either way, with forays to the rim proving less fruitful, is it really a huge surprise the Cavs have suddenly fallen in love with the perimeter shot?
-I give a lot of credit to the Hawks. They’ve been making the playoffs regularly for a good decade now and despite falling short of where they’d like to be in the postseason have been a consistent and good team. While they got blown out (like, way out) in Game 2, the rest of the series was competitive, especially down in Atlanta. The closeout Game 4 was a lot of fun that had two teams fighting a battle that could have swung either way. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer even said he didn’t think the Hawks defense was so bad, it’s just the Cavs were that good. It was still a strong year for the franchise, and sometimes in life, you just gotta admit when someone has your number. Good luck next year, Atlanta!
Stats Are Fun:
-the Cavs’ current 12-0 playoff winning streak against the Hawks ties an NBA record — one also shared by the Cavs streak versus the Pistons, set last round
-for the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cavs shot 77-of-152 from beyond the arc and shot 81-of-191 on all other attempts
-the Big Three of LeBron, Kyrie, and Love are now 12-0 in the postseason together. Make of that what you will.
-Kevin Love has more games with 12-plus 3-point attempts since Friday (2) than the rest of his career combined (1).
-At minimum, the Cavs will now have six days to rest before playing again. So basically…
(stats per espn.go.com)
We got some time folks. https://t.co/sH4P0H1cPL
— Cavs:TheBlog (@CavsTheTweets) May 8, 2016
For those who like puzzles, try figuring out who guards whom if the Cavs face the Dubs.
I would love to read a CtB article (5on 5?) on this topic sometime.
was saying the same thing, especially since its going to be annouceed he’s MVP, Cavs hot shooting going be old news. Ah well, rest up Cavs and focus on the east.
Could be worse. Imagine if Curry was injured or ineffective going into the Finals. There would be nonstop stories about the tough-luck, plucky-underdog Warriors.
Blazers defense so bad. I’d have crowded Steph’s landing space all game. And that Memphis Tigers offense down the stretch? What was that?
Curry taking over, no one on Spurs scares me like that
Warriors back to loking unbeatable..:
Only cause of Curry, They’ve got 17 points in minutes in overtime, thats why we cant have offensive stagnation against warriors or spurs
Well yeah, but unfortunately they have Curry…I don’t think anyone is beating them in a series if healthy…
They barely beat a 44 win team that plays no D. I am still scared of the Ws, but am a bit confused by the overreaction to curry going 5-16 from 3 last night, and barely beating a team with huge holes.
No overreaction from me…just the evidence of a full season. Curry didn’t look 100% in this game, and he still did his typical thing in the last few minutes.
you know the media going love this Warriors win, now they win in 5
Curry’s knee seems pretty normal, unfortunately.
Yeah, he looked less than 100% earlier, but looks normal now….
Too many bad shots by Portland, and Curry hits everything.
Terrible shot by Lillard, but he gets bailed out. Going to OT. Bray has 5, foul him out.
This has been a great game, whatever happens…
Anytime Plumlee gets the ball, I get nervous…
I’ll be glad when Speights retires…I’m tired of looking at his sweaty body.
And the Warriors finally get the lead with 3 min left in the 3rd… Just been waiting for them to turn on the jets and bust this to a 10-15 point victory
Not looking great right now. Lillard is a really good offensive player, but he still takes too many bad shots, and turns it over too much. I know “Lillard vs Irving” is as much as an internet debate as “Wall vs Irving”, but I think Irving and Lillard have a lot in common. I don’t think either one is really ‘better’ than the other, despite the passionate arguments from the fanboys.
Livingston tossed arguing a call….not smart.
2 straight 3s for freaking Speights….get bent.
I think Blazers have a good chance this game…Curry is on limited minutes, and looks a little rusty. I don’t give them much chance of winning the series, though.
Braymond should get ejected….but he could murder a fan courtside during play and not get more than a flagrant 1…
Turn out the lights…
We will dominate either of these two teams. Lowry and DD just 5/27
Always have to wonder about Miami…they probably get one game just on Lebron Heat angst alone…
Both of these teams are offensively challenged…
Have to give them credit: They’re accepting their limitations — not taking any shots outside the restricted area.
Toronto is garbage, how is this game in OT
Here’s an interesting thought: were Cavs better off getting Frye than Joe Johnson? I say, yes. Knows his role better. Not sure Johnson is all that more valuable than a healthy Jefferson.
Really hard to say. I wasn’t high on ISO Joe, personally. Frye can get hot from 3, and has an almost impossible to block shot, so I’d probably rather have him.
Agree except Jefferson plays better off the ball than Joe J.
and as I type this JOE is playing D like a man possessed in OT
Frye all day long over Johnson. Joe has nothing from long range and not as good a fit.
It wasn’t an either/or proposition. The Cavs could have had both. JJ would have been nice fit off the bench and provided some scoring when LeBron sits. He has a much larger role in Miami than he would have had here which explains some of why he has looked bad of late.
Well, ISO Joe made his own decision. He could have come to the Cavs, but he wanted the best chance to show off his skills for his next contract. He decided that Miami was the better place for that.
(I do like Lowry, but for whatever reason, he’s not been good in these playoffs)
Lots of players just can’t elevate their game in the playoffs. They are at full capacity already. See, e.g., the whole Hawks and Raptors team.
Curry active tonight. Let’s see what he can bring to the table. Go blazers.
The Trash Brothers are really stinking it up tonight.
The Cavs are a Nice team
Ha indeed they are! Grab a beer, get cozy and welcome to CtB breah – the best sports blog on the interwebs.
after starting the game 6-11 from 3, ATL went 3-20 the rest of the way to end up 9-31. Pretty good defense after that hot start
Excellent inaugural Recap Carson! Even though the Cavs kept it fast and loose on defense, they got stops when they needed them most. Glad they proved me right with the sweep…
Thanks for the kind words, EG! Hopefully the Cavs show they can ratchet up the D next series, but I’ll take another sweep regardless if they do ;)
In the series, K-Love went 19 of 40 from 3-pt line.
He went 4 of 31 from within the 3-pt arc.
Thought this and some defensive lapses were the only real disconcerting points for the Cavs. K-Love has no doubt been playing great. One of the most dominant rebounders in the playoffs, has been playing good defense, and been active and highly involved on offense. Just needs to be more efficient inside the arc. It will be highly needed the rest of the way.
4-31? Wow. That’s bad.
Ugh. No Cavs for a week. All work and no play makes Cols a dull dull duasdklfjal;sdfjaosdaer9
I don’t think that is how you spell “duasdklfjal;sdfjaosdaer9”.
Great recap! Is it time to start calling us the “Threeveland Cavaliers”
Or at least the CL3V3LAND CAVALI3RS
Thanks TomS! How bout the “Believeland Cava-three-ers”? (that made me wince)
Favorite offensive play of the game: late in fourth quarter, Love receives ball in the post and passes to a cutting Lebron who dishes to Frye in the corner for a wide open three. He missed it, but the setup was beautiful (Runner up: Kyrie’s amazing left handed bank shot).
Favorite defensive play of the game: TT with that critical block of the umlaut’s shot.
Enjoying the moment. Let’s go Cavs! This could be the year!
yeah that last Frye 3 was so wide open it was comical. Could have been a dagger. The Hawks committed themselves to hedging/trapping on the PnR and collapsing the paint on LBJ/Kyrie drives. So they got a lot of blocks and steals. But they gave up so many open 3s. Maybe Coach Bud just thought it would be worse to try to change tactics, maybe he thought the Cavs hot shooting was a mirage.
Griffin again screwed on the award. He built a great team in year one, then in year two he kept them together while adding Jefferson and Frye. And he made a great move in installing Lue as the coach.
All Buford did was sign Aldrigde.
I wonder if Griffin got docked points by the other GMs for having an unlimited budget
He shouldn’t. Then the Spurs GM should get docked for his players taking below market contracts just so their owner can make more
Money.
The New-Age moneyball! Overpay your players out of goodwill!
Nope. Players should get the money, not the owners. The Spurs HOF trio screwed themselves out of a lot of money that went directly into their owner’s pocket. It’s very dumb. I’m really glad the Cavs players didn’t do that. I’m also very glad Danny G knows how to own a basketball team and pay the guys what they are worth.
I can get behind this comment. Who cares what the players make as long the owners are spending to keep them there — if the players take less, that’s on them.
Magus of the Year: David Griffin
I think it’s rancor over the treatment of Blatt. “What GM fires their winning coach? etc.”
Thank you for the “Instacaps” Tom Pestak!
Hey! You’re welcome
Lue once again showing why he’s much better for this team than the Blatt.
http://espn.go.com/blog/cleveland-cavaliers/post/_/id/2670/kevin-love-leads-cavs-into-the-conference-finals-with-tyronn-lues-talk-on-his-mind
Everything is Awesome.
Cavs won thr game on a timoe out play by Lue that git James a layup. Lue has been great all post season wit these plays
You mean the goaltend off the Delly pass?
Yeah. Lue has really been drawing up some great play!
One thing I notice about Lue is that I spend way less time wondering why certain line-ups are on the floor this year than I did last year with Blatt. Whenever I find myself thinking “Wait a minute, why isn’t _______ on the floor?” that player checks in on the next opportunity. In the Pistons series he was definitely still figuring things out, and while we may have overplayed some guys in the Hawks series, I feel like he’s really finding his own and making good decisions.
Woohoo! Great to get through the first two series without a scratch. Love the Pacman graphic. Nice to see the Thunder making life tough for the Spurs as well. Seems like our “punchers chance” is turning into a real chance against the West.
Just a quibble, but isn’t the right play on that last jump ball a tip as far as possible DOWN the court, away from the basket? If LeBron had just popped it beyond midcourt, there would have been no chance for that last second three. The clock starts ticking as soon as the tip happens and ATL had no timeouts. It all worked out anyway, of course.
I thought about that too, but it’s tough to execute a play that you’ve probably never even tried once in your life. If you miss a little you might end up with a catch and shoot for Toronto. If JR isn’t getting mugged he comes up with that cleanly. The longer contact with the ball the more chance Schröder gets a piece of it, as well.
In the post game LeBron said he was afraid of Bazemore or another Hawk jumping up and picking it off as he tried to knock it down court and firing up a desperation 3. He saw the pocket between JR and Kevin that was formed and wanted to just knock it into the pocket figuring JR was faster than Horford to the ball and even if he missed it, Love would be right behind to go get it. He actually spends a good minute or two walking through his entire thought process, so it’s worth the listen if you want… Read more »
Nice summary. It was briefly mentioned in the live thread, but I wonder if Moz could have stopped some of the points in the paint. The Hawks did dominate there 56 to 20. Moz has obviously been erratic at best, but as the saying goes, you can’t teach 7 ft. Even 7-8 minutes to see what Moz could – or couldn’t do – might have been worth a try. Also, playing Irving 42 mins seemed excessive as he was clearly gassed. Nevertheless, Lue has made mostly very good decisions in the playoffs. Whether it’s Toronto or Miami, I think the… Read more »
Lue is just keeping Delly fresh for the finals, where he will play more minutes than Kyrie.
Maybe that’s it. Even though Delly’s shot has been somewhat off, he still is very effective on the floor and should get 20 minutes. Through yesterday, Delly actually leads all players in the playoffs with that 29/3 assists to turnover ratio, which equals a gaudy 9.67. And that is with 16 minutes/game.
Irving being awesome is probably more the reason. Delly needs to hit the gym and fix his jumper. At some point we are going to need him.
The way the Hawks defended the Pick and Roll and the lineups Lue had with Delly didn’t align very well with his style. They gang-hedged on LeBron and sagged off Delly a bit in the PnR. Delly was looking for LeBron, but often he wasn’t interested in rolling. I don’t totally blame him, as he wasn’t the beneficiary of many calls around the rack. Since Delly and TT don’t ever seem to play together in the playoffs it’s hurting their lob game. He’s still getting dimes to guys like RJ and Love, and that A to T is incredible, but… Read more »
The long rests between series are allowing us to play starters longer in the games. We’re going into each series now with bodies that are ready to go.
The concern is that the reserves will be rusty when called upon to step up. It will be up to Lue to come up with a good balance, but we’re at the point where the big three will be rested and able to put in as many minutes as it takes to win it all.
Moz has been awful.
Thanks Mike! I wondered if Moz could have helped as well. This series was unlike any other ever, though, so we’ll see if this is our new norm or if we put renewed emphasis back on inside-the-arc play.