Recap: Cavs 121, Hawks 108 (or, T.G.I.F!)

In the same way that it was tough for the Cavs to top their historic hailstorm of heaves from downtown in Game 2 tonight, I knew from the opening bars of Tom Pestak’s stirring rendition of “Friday” by Rebecca Black that the InstaCap of Game 3 was going to be a tough act to follow. But, like the Cavs, I’ll do my best to try and measure up.

This first week of May has already seen it’s share of quasi-holiday celebrations: Monday was May Day (probably a good cue for the Hawks to call for help); Wednesday was National Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you…); and Thursday was Cinco de Mayo (a perfect day to celebrate the Cavs being halfway to sweeping Atlanta) — it was also incidentally the National Day of Prayer (which is probably what the Hawks should have been spending their off-day doing). But then came the best day of the week… Friday (check that) Frye-day. In addition to being National Beverage Day, National Nurses Day, National Space Day and National Crepe Suzette Day… it now will be forever known as Channing Frye’s National Playoff Explosion Day… and, Thank God for it!

On a night when the Cavs suddenly found they had their hands full with a feisty Atlanta team that was fueled by their home crowd, forced turnovers, lax Cleveland defense, hack-a-strategy and some favorable foul calls, they desperately needed a little something extra. Fortunately, they ordered a side of Frye… and it got served up piping hot when it counted. It was enough to make you bust out your best disco boogie moves and sing along (well, those of us in Mark Price jerseys anyway…).

First Quarter:

At the last minute before this one got underway, Mike Budenholzer decided to throw a proverbial curveball at the Cavs, swapping out Kyle Korver with Thabo Sefalosha in the starting lineup. Maybe he was hoping to infuse a bit more defensive intensity, or maybe just find a different way to get Korver heated up, but either way it seemed to have the desired effect initially.

Atlanta won the tip, and looked to push the pace early and often on the Cavs, bursting out to an 8-3 lead by attacking the paint. Defensively, they had Sefalosha draped all over LeBron, and used Paul Millsap to double and trap both LBJ and Kyrie whenever they had the ball. Fortunately, that left Millsap a step slow to rotate to his man, Kevin Love, who scored the Cavs first 13 points on three triples and a couple of hustle plays. After TT drew a second quick foul on Al Horford, KLove had maybe his most impressive offensive board and score of the early going with a put-back of Tristan’s missed free throw.

https://vine.co/v/iQAQtnpWATK

With 13 points and seven boards in the first six minutes, Kevin looked to be on his way to a monster game, but foul trouble (both of the called and non-called variety) would plague him in the middle quarters. The Hawks also got a pick-me-up from the former Mr. Kardashian, Kris Humphries, who checked in for Horford and promptly hit a YOLO three. JR countered with a swish (one of only two after his barrage in Game 2), and TT flashed a fancy post move for a bucket. Maybe that triggered something in Coach Bud, because he commenced his Hack-a-TT (or Frisk-A-Tristan) strategy for the first of many times on the night.

While processing Hubie Brown calling Kent Bazemore “Blazemore” I missed Sefalosha as he nailed a three, and then hit the deck on a hard fall shortly thereafter. The Cavs couldn’t cash in on the 5-on-4, however. Then LeBron exited, and the offense stagnated under Kyrie. Even with TT’s incessant boardwork, Kyrie struggled with shot selection and execution (he started 0-4) and was replaced by Delly. Things got worse before they got better, as Delly went under a pick on an Umlaut (Dennis Schröder) three, and JR picked up a tech after getting frustrated by some physical Millsap defense.

Just when things seemed to be falling apart, though, Shump dished back-to-back dimes… first to Delly for a revenge three, then to Channing to get his Frye-day started. Despite RJ getting a foul just for standing underneath a falling Tim Hardaway, Jr, the Cavs got the last word as Ty Lue put LBJ in for an uncontested waltz down the lane for an easy two. Cavs up 31-28 after one.

Second Quarter:

The second period began in the usual way, with LBJ leading the bench bunch of Delly, Shump, RJ and Frye. It was effective. Frye hit another triple off an RJ dime, and Shump made a terrific find of a cutting LeBron for an easy layup. And, finally, Shump put the Cavs up by eight after he seemingly hung in the air to grab and throw down this massive one-handed jam…

https://vine.co/v/iQqaiYljZz2

The Atlanta crowd howled with glee over a charge call on their public enemy #1, Delly (with some help from a flop by Teague), and then went nuts as Korver finally got loose for a three. Frye hit an equalizer triple, but after a second foul on Delly, Kyrie subbed in and quickly got burned on some pick and roll action and a three from Teague. LeBron found Shump for a rare trey, and Kyrie used some defense to get his offense going with an alert steal and runout to push the lead back to eight.

Following a timeout, the Hawks re-inserted Sefalosha and Millsap with Korver, Teague and Humphries, and they came out with some renewed fight. They continued to force turnovers for the Cavs (Cleveland had 10 in the first half after committing just nine in the whole of Game 2), and Coach Bud re-engaged the Hack-a-TT strategy to keep the Cavs out of rhythm on offense. Meanwhile, Teague and Korver started to get loose (they scored eight and 12 points respectively in the quarter). The Cavs were a step slow on their closeouts, and even Humphries (nee Kardashian) made them (read KLove) fall down and look silly (poor Kev got Vined a couple times in this one — and this wasn’t the worst of it).

Horford checked back in to punish the Cavs inside and out (with a triple) which helped the Hawks finish a 20-5 run to close out the half. The 63 points were the most the Cavs had given up in the first half of a playoff game since 2006. They managed to stop the bleeding a little with an RJ open reverse jam and then hold Atlanta off on the last shot to keep the deficit to single digits. Cavs trailed 63-55 at the half.

Third Quarter:

Before the second half even officially started, the Hawks had Mike Scott foul TT (they might have actually just fouled him in the locker room and put it on SnapChat to show Tony Brothers that it happened) to send Tristan to the line. Tony was probably still pre-occupied with that when Danny Crawford whistled KLove for a dubious charge call. However, he had a pretty clear view on maybe the most blatant no-call of the game when Horford dove forward over Love (who was outside of the circle and stationary) to deliver another unfortunate Vine (judge for yourself).

To Kevin’s credit, he came back with a turnaround shot, then hit a three to counter Horford’s subsequent triple. But right about then, Tony Brothers decided that today would not be Kevin’s day, sending him to the bench with his fourth foul on yet another questionable offensive foul call. Though the Hawks probably breathed a sigh of relief to have Love and his 18 points off the floor, they must have forgotten what day of the week it was… and who would be replacing Kev.

The results were slightly delayed though, as the Hawks returned to Frisk-A-Tristan once more before Frye and Kyrie hit threes in succession. Unfortunately, the Cavs’ interior defense was getting carved up by Paul Millsap, who finally got going in the third (11 points in the quarter), and the offense was stalling between Kyrie getting trapped on the outside and the Hack-a-TT strategy. They were still able to close it to four following a rare Frye two with a nifty kiss off the glass and a JR Swish trey, but Millsap got on another roll and the Cavs stopped running their offense.

Until this point, it was a quiet scoring game for LeBron, but he got three shots on a heady move on a breakaway foul. And, even though the Cavs were still not closing out on shooters, they were at least gaining momentum by pushing the ball inside. Channing Frye scored an impressive up and under dunk and an LBJ tip in off a TT miss cut the lead down to four.

https://vine.co/v/iQqdrPOwxLE

But, the turnover bug struck again (the Cavs had 18 through three quarters), and Cleveland failed to defend one last alley oop from Schröder to Horford. Cavs were probably lucky to be down 91-85 after three.

Fourth Quarter:

With Atlanta seemingly committed to the Hack-a-TT strategy, Coach Lue made a key adjustment by playing Channing Frye and Kevin Love together in the front court with Kyrie, Delly and Shump in the back. The hope was that they could spread the offense and buy some rest for LeBron with some timely shooting. The initial possession wasn’t promising, with Kyrie going ISO and getting blocked. Then Korver got loose for a three to put the Cavs in a deeper hole.

Suddenly, though, the offense started to click as Frye answered with his fifth triple of the game. Kyrie traded a mid-range jumper for another Schröder oop to Horford, and then the two traded threes. But the Umlaut couldn’t match the MFQ for much longer, as Teague checked in and Kyrie bombed another one before Frye poured in another three to pull Cavs within two. LeBron checked back in at about the 7:40 mark, and was obviously well rested… because he did this to Kyle Korver…

https://vine.co/v/iQqT3ertFrI

A possession later, LeBron knocked down a three from the left wing to give the Cavs the lead back for good at 104-103, then rifled the ball ahead to Frye for a breakaway dunk following a JR steal. The Cavs also picked up the defensive intensity, locking the Hawks down for the remainder of the quarter. LeBron, Kyrie and Frye handled the scoring, while Kevin got some payback by playing some with some terrific defense on Millsap.

Methodically, the Cavs ground the Hawks down by getting into their prevent offense to milk the clock. Frye picked off a Korver pass and nailed his seventh triple (to finish with a team high 27 points!). His three gave the Cavs 60 threes in the first three games of the series and capped a 14-1 run. A Korver long two stopped the streak, and a Kyrie ISO miss provided a glimmer of hope for the Hawks. But, Ky hustled back to steal the ball from Teague, forcing Jeff’s first turnover of the game, and LBJ hit KLove with a dime for the dagger three. For good measure, Kev played some awesome offense on Millsap and then Teague to slam the door shut.

In the end, the Cavs simply took over the fourth quarter, outscoring the Hawks 36-17 (22-5 over the final eight minutes) as they cranked up the defense and intensity, and got a huge lift on Channing Frye-day. Cavs win going away 121-108.

The Evil:

National Raspberry Turnover Day. This was actually on May 3rd, so the Cavs were a little bit late in celebrating it. After averaging just 8.5 giveaways over the first two games of this series, the Cavs had a whopping 20 in Game 3. A number of these were the result of offensive fouls (some questionable at that), but the Cavs were also much more careless with the ball in the early going. The silver lining here is that 18 of these turnovers came in the first three quarters, and one of the two in the fourth was an intentional shot-clock violation at the end so as not to rub in the victory.

National Bombshells Day. This is actually tomorrow, so the Cavs were a little early in celebrating it. After locking down Kyle Korver through the first two games, the Cavs let the ever-dangerous long range bomber go off for 18 points on 6-11 shooting (5-9 from downtown). In fact, they allowed the Hawks in general to bomb away from distance to the tune of 16-34 (47%), and were a step slow on closeouts (at least for the first three and a half quarters). They did tighten the screws down the stretch, but allowed Atlanta to shoot almost 50% for the game.

National Paste-Up Day. This is also tomorrow, but the Hawks were able to keep JR glued down, holding the pipe-bomber to just four shots. He did make two of them, and both from downtown, so he did contribute, but the Hawks seemed to focus their energy on getting under his skin (he got a tech in the first half). He might have also been thrown off by the Hawks shift of Korver out of the starting lineup.

National Roast Leg of Lamb Day. While Kyrie didn’t get completely torched by Jeff Teague, he had a tougher time staying in front of him at times in Game 3. Granted, he did wind up with three steals, including a key one on Teague’s only turnover of the game late, but too many times Teague and Schroder either blew past him or exposed him on the pick and roll with Horford and Millsap.

National Lumpy Rug Day. This is the best recent (May 3rd) “holiday” I could come up with to display my disdain for the “Hack-a” strategy. The Hawks wrapped up TT repeatedly and hit him like a lumpy rug to send him to the line in an attempt to throw the Cavs off their game. Many will disagree with me on this, but I really won’t be sad to see this tactic go by the wayside in years to come. Sure, Tristan should work on his free throws, but it’s silly that teams can foul guys even before the ball is inbounded.

National Blame Someone Else Day. This is coming up a week from Friday (May 13th — or Friday the 13th), but Tony Brothers and his crew must not be able to see their own calendars correctly. The officiating wasn’t going to cost the Cavs this game, but that still doesn’t excuse how shoddy it was. I can’t wait to see the two-minute report on that Al Horford “posterization” play…

The Genius:

Good Friday. With another 21 made threes (for 54%) the Cavs are putting up all kinds of ridiculous and historic numbers from beyond the arc in this series, and in this post-season in general. In this game, they raised their total tally to 61 threes (46 in the last two games)… a number that shatters the record for threes in a five game series. And, they still have another game to play.

Frye-Day I’m In Love. I don’t know if Ty Lue is a fan of the alt/mope band The Cure, but I’d like to think this song was running through his head after he made the decision to play Channing and Kevin together in the fourth quarter. They wound up outscoring the Hawks by 21 points with this dynamic duo sharing the court down the stretch. Moreover, these two forwards wound up carrying the scoring load for the team (Love early and Frye late) and keeping the Cavs in the game. Channing Frye was a straight up assassin (10-13, 7-9 from deep for 27 points), and KLove had yet another double double (he’s had one every game), and is still undefeated in his playoff career (11-0).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0

Friday Night Lights. Despite Charles Barkley’s call for the Hawks to “take someone out” after Game 2, there was only one instance of overly-physical play that crossed the line, and that was a late shove by Jeff Teague of LeBron out of bounds. Fortunately, neither LBJ nor any Atlanta fans were injured, and Teague got a Flagrant 1 for his trouble. The good news is that it didn’t escalate beyond that.

Hands Up If You Love Friday. The Cavs nearly doubled up the Hawks on the boards (55-28), and had three guys (Love, LBJ and TT) pull down 13+ rebounds. They had their hands up and grabbed nearly every second chance opportunity in sight. They also gathered an amazing 18 offensive boards… half of which were snagged by Canadian Dynamite.

Friday Is My Second Favorite F Word. My favorite at the moment is “four” — as in how many games it’s going to take to sweep the Hawks out of the playoffs for a second consecutive year. And also the number of Cavs players who scored 20+ points in this game… something that hasn’t happened in a playoff game for the Cavs since 1990 when Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance and John “Hot Rod” Williams pulled it off. The Big Three has not disappointed on the scoring front, and Kyrie, LeBron and Kevin all came through again, but they’ve also had one other guy who’s stepped up to help like JR last game and Channing this game.

Next Friday. Hopefully, this will be the earliest the Cavs will play Game 1 of the ECF, since they should be able to take care of business against a demoralized Hawks team on Sunday.

Parting Shot:

There’s a lot more I could say about the level of dejection the Hawks must feel about this game, but commenter GreekCavsFan probably summed it up best…

At least the Hawks can take solace that Frye-day is over now… and Saturday brings new holidays like National Join Hands Day and National Homebrew Day so they can drown their sorrows. And, of course, Game 4 is on Mother’s Day, and at least their Mothers will always be proud of their effort.

Seven down… Nine to go…

GO CAVS!