The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks battle in Game 3 at the Philips Arena on Friday night. Korver ended the game with seven points and only attempted two three pointers.
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In case you missed it, the Cleveland Cavaliers went absolutely bananas from behind the arc Wednesday night against the Hawks. The Cavs didn’t achieve the record until the 4th quarter, but the game was already over.
Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue took exception to that line of thinking. “He has a handsome shot. Everyone was making shots”. Swing, swing shot when they double-team LeBron in the post, or we drive the ball in transition.
“If you’re open and it’s your shot, take it”, Lue said roughly two hours before the opening tip.
Point guard Kyrie Irving added, “He’s a special talent”.
J.R. Smith made seven 3s as the Cavs, looking like an Eastern Conference version of Golden State’s Splash Brothers, had the most prolific outside shooting game of any team in league history. “I mean, records are made to be broken, I don’t see anything wrong with it. We didn’t do anything malicious”.
The Cleveland Cavaliers know the adage “live by the sword, die by the sword”. But Horford seemed more shocked than ticked.
The Cavs had 74 points at intermission, six more than the previous franchise playoff record set against New Jersey in 1992 and matched against the Nets in 1993. “My team is handling that, and I’m not going to take my focus off what my job is right now and that’s being in the postseason”, he said…. “What are you doing?'” Smith said. Regardless of how amusing it may look to you, I feel as though I can make it. When I get that opportunity, I’m going to shoot it, and I’m going to make it. “When you have a player like him and you put shooting around him, all of them moving the ball, it’s a great challenge”. “It’s hard to say, but I would say no”. It is somewhat unimportant to us… It’s like fluorescent. Coach says, “Hey, J.R., shoot!”
However, James was quick to point out the Cavs are not all about the long bomb.
It only got worse for the Hawks. We’re talking about professionals here. The Phoenix Suns reinvented the game a bit when they aimed to get a shot off within the first seven seconds of the shot clock. Cleveland didn’t break the record until the team’s reserves were in the game in the final stanza. I also think there’s an outside shot I’ll be starting for the Cavs in Game 3. “I think they’re trusting each other now, trusting each other on the defensive end, trusting each other on the offensive end”. If there is one issue that Cleveland needs to clean up is their frequent tendency to get lax and take their proverbial foot of the pedal whenever they get a big lead. I think the guys have bought into playing that way, and it’s fun to play that way’. It is not like we have played a complete game of Hawks basketball yet.
Cleveland – They trailed by 18 points in Game 1. The Cavs led by as many as 41 in the third quarter. “It’d be great to play against those guys in the postseason”, James said. “We did what we were supposed to do”. “We did what we’re supposed to do as the No. 1 seed and that’s protect your home court”. We know going down to Atlanta, it’s going to be a hostile environment.
Besides, Millsap can’t actually tell us how his team would respond to such outstanding play.
With the game getting out of hand early, no Hawks’ starter played more than 26 minutes on the floor.
When you’ve got LeBron James on your team, the pressure couldn’t be higher and the expectations to perform every night at the highest level along with them.
Not according to James, who doesn’t consider the team a 3-point shooting squad, via Ohio.com.
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“It’s one game. We did what we were supposed to”.
