CLEVELAND — The Atlanta Hawks came in saying they were a better team than the one that last faced LeBron James in the playoffs. You cant go in humble, I guess. “My Barack Obama look”.
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Westbrook made two free throws with 18.3 seconds on the clock to give Oklahoma City a 98-94 lead. It was an 11-point lead after the first quarter, but the Hawks managed to make it a game. Twice he took zero.
Coach Steve Kerr said that the NBA’s reigning MVP wouldn’t be available for tonight’s Game 2. The bigger storylines are the on-court matchups, and while Cleveland presents problems for the Hawks, the Cavs face challenges from Atlanta on offense and defense. “We just got to continue to play through it and got to continue to keep attacking and, hopefully, we’ll get those calls”.
LeBron James felt as if the way in which the Cavaliers handled the Hawks’ comeback was the direct result of their coach.
You can always try to make LeBron James as ineffective as possible but ten times out of ten he is going to get his usual numbers. They swept the Pistons 4-0 in the first round and stand poised to potentially do the same to the Hawks in round 2. The Cleveland Cavaliers have won 13 of their last 16 home games.
That’s hardly preferential treatment for a superstar.
Aside from their 110-108 overtime win at Atlanta on April 1, the Cavaliers won their other two games against the Hawks this season by double-digits, and two of the Eastern Conference Finals wins from a year ago were won by 10-plus. Really? The Cavaliers came out with a head of steam and the Hawks seemed to be asleep until midway through the third quarter.
James’ three-point play, which he punctuated by flexing his biceps, came after he stripped the ball from Schroder and the Cavs kept their possession alive with a pair of offensive rebounds, one by Tristan Thompson, the other by J.R. Smith. The Hawks had quite possibly their best overall season, making it past the second round for the first time since 1970 and advancing all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time ever. He became the first player in NBA Finals history to lead both teams in points, assists, and rebounds for the entire series and delivered 38.3% of Cleveland’s points in that series.
“They kind of got confidence back”, Lue said. “I know it’s more important that we make them miss first”. Hes hurt us. I respect him. He plays off their penetration and shots well. Granted, Schroder had made a ton of them to get the game into a winnable position.
The Hawks won’t have any chance if Kyle Korver doesn’t get going. Cleveland also lost Game 3, and if not for James clutch, game-winning 3-pointer in Chicago in Game 4, the Cavs could have been in a 3-1 hole.
Dennis Schroder scored a playoff career-high 27 points and rallied the Hawks before they crumbled in the closing minutes. “However, the Hawks’ next two possessions resulted in 3-pointers (Mike Scott, Schroder) and they eventually pulled within 74-70 by the end of the quarter”.
The Hawks’ offense was fantastic, scoring an average of 100.5 points per game with all five starters in double-figures – and no one averaged less than 12.2 points.
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Love, who scored 17 points on just 4 of 17 shooting in Game 1, was not spotted at the team’s facility when the media was allowed in following practice, but Lue said the forward was “fine”.
