James scored 25 points, Kyrie Irving added 21 and Cleveland withstood a strong second-half surge by Atlanta to maintain its chokehold on the Hawks with a 104-93 victory Monday night in the opening game of their second-round Eastern Conference series.
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LeBron James scored 27 points, Smith scored 23 while shooting 7-for-13 from 3-point range, and Kyrie Irving had 19 points.
“The Cavs have done that to me the last couple of years, making it very hard to get shots”, he said. Windy pointed out that teams are content with Kyrie Irving and James jacking up deep shots, because if those superstars go cold, the Cavs’ offense becomes non-existent.
Even their furry mascot, Moondog, got in on the act by making an over-the-head, backward fling from half court on his first try in the final minutes. Korver ended the game with seven points and only attempted two three pointers. “All we know is that he’s taking care of himself, health-wise, and that’s all we care about”. The record-breaker came with 2:24 left when Dahntay Jones brought the crowd to its feet with a wide-open three from the right corner.
Mo Williams added the final 3-pointer on the Cavs’ next possession.
10 different Cavaliers hit three-pointers, with five players hitting at least two, four players hitting at least three and three players hitting at least four.
Smith’s 28 3-pointers (in six games) leads the league in the postseason and the Cavs’ average of 16.2 3s made per game also ranks first.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) looks to pass against Atlanta Hawks forward Mike Muscala (31) in the first half during Game 2 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series, Wednesday, May 4, 2016, in Cleveland.
That was apparent when the Cavs, up 18 points with four minutes left in the third quarter of Game 1, fell behind early in the fourth, but rallied to close the game on a 17-5 run.
By continuing to shoot the three-point shot well, the Cavaliers built a 74-38 lead over the Hawks heading into the halftime break. The team posted on its official Twitter account, “If you take away their 3s, we’re right in this”.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Once the Cavs got hot, they started hitting everything, and when they’re in rhythm Smith can hit the kinds of ridiculous off-balance shots he hit in Game 2. In a blink of an eye the Hawks took their first lead of the game with eight minutes to go. The Hawks, who were led by Paul Millsap’s 16 points and 11 rebounds, gave up 39 points to Cleveland in the second quarter.
Not that it would have mattered much. The Heat won that series in seven games. The Cavaliers still have never lost to the Hawks in the postseason, but this one was not easy.
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“If they’re going to run two, three guys at Kyle, other guys are going to have good looks and good opportunities”, Budenholzer said. As he prepares to film Space Jam 2, the comparisons to Michael Jordan will increase in intensity. “I said, ‘Yeah, the one you shot and made was a bad shot, but the one you missed was a great shot.’ He was like, ‘That’s my shot, though'”. As they arrived at the conclusion, LeBron James took a step out of Cleveland’s pregame line.
