Cleveland beat Atlanta 109-97 on Saturday in a rematch of last season’s NBA Eastern Conference finals, and Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was ejected for making contact with an official. Seemingly out of frustration, James headed to the bench without the proper protocol of player substitutions.
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The Cavaliers didn’t have enough time to get a replacement into the game and were whistled for a technical foul for only having four players on the court.
The Cavs were leading the game at that point and afterwards James said he apologized to the team and head coach David Blatt added afterwards that James was “frustrated”. He’ll hold LeBron to under 25 points, even though James will be in attack mode late in the game.
“You know, Bron is a lot of things – a lot of great things – but probably where you’re not going to see him is out there playing for the (Lake Erie) Monsters (an AHL team based in Cleveland) or the (New York) Rangers”.
While we know you aren’t allowed to play with more than five guys on the floor, we may not of all known you weren’t allowed to play with just four players if you wanted to.
“They did a good job a year ago”, Blatt said.
“Coach got on us pretty well, rightfully so, which he should have”, said James.
The Cavaliers swept the Hawks out of the playoffs and didn’t have any trouble with them Saturday despite being down to two healthy starters in LeBron James and Kevin Love.
“It’s quite challenging, as we are the only team that has not had out whole team play just yet”.
“One thing you can’t control is injuries but one thing you can control is how you play with the guys who are out there”, James said. “And (he) thought we were playing hockey. Yesterday was definitely not a day off. It was day off from the court, but not from us preparing and still getting better”.
If the Hawks fail to find the win column Thursday night, they’ll face a tougher task Saturday night at home against one of the bigger contenders in the Eastern Conference and the Atlanta Hawks. The game tips off at 8:00 p.m. EST, and here are five bold predictions for what may unfold in the Bucks’ first time back on TNT’s regular-season slate since 2002. Smith added 18 points on 7-of-12 shots and Love had 22 points (7-of-15 FGs) and 15 rebounds for a double-double.
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On Saturday night, without the services of Mo Williams – nursing an injured right ankle – Matthew Dellavedova continued to advance the mantra of “next-man-up” – stepping in for his second straight start and finishing with 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting (and a +27 mark).
