Live Thread: Cavs @ Hawks
2015-03-06
Fresh off of outscoring the Raptors in an old-fashioned barn-burner, the Cavs roll into the ATL looking to ground the high-flying birds and show them exactly who the EC is going to run through in the playoffs. But Atlanta has had a couple of days off to figure out the best ways to hard foul LeBron in the paint stop LeBron from scoring.
LBJ says he’s “mad as hell… and he’s not going to take it anymore!” (or at least is going to do more to protect himself from now on).
The Cavs dealt Atlanta their worst loss of the season back on Nov. 15, 127-94, but the Hawks rose up less than a month later to even the score by giving the Cavs their worst defeat, 127-98. Atlanta won the next one too (109-101 in a more competitive matchup on the King’s birthday), although neither LBJ nor Al Horford played in that one (but neither did JR Smith, Iman Shumpert or Timofey Mozgov since they weren’t on the team yet).
If the Cavs want to even the season series, they will need to do a better job tightening up their perimeter defense to prevail in what is sure to be another high-scoring affair. If they allow the Hawks to get supernova from the outside… in the words of Han Solo… “that’d end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it?”
This feels like another playoff-style tilt to me, somewhere between the Houston and Toronto game in terms of intensity. I don’t think it will be quite as physical, but I do think there will be a fair amount of scoring… Prediction: Cavs fly high to edge the Hawks in the end… 113-111… Commentariat… Rise Up!
Speed painting at halftime?
Yeah… who does that guy think he is… Chappie?
hawks play very smart while cavs play dumb thats difference in game…we have what like 10 turnovers or more….team needs to come out 2nd half with some more guts, energy, and focus
I think LeBron plays like crap any time a team is allowed to play him physically. Like he’s been down this road before and won’t bother if he’s not going to get the calls he normally gets. I wonder how much of Blatt’s tech was to fire up the team. In any case, they’re not out of it yet.
Cavs were able to slow the game down there in the 2nd quarter… Professional pride has kicked in.
LeBron’s line: 1-7, 5 pts, 6 assists, 6 turnovers, minus 13.
LBJ went 1-7 with six turns that half for a -13… can only go up from there…
lebron is really killing this team right now in more ways than one….cavs lucky they’re down 10
LeBron playing selfish, non-team basketball. It’s really embarrassing to watch.
WOW! Do you realize how close that Kyrie near full court heave was?!
Cavs just not attacking the middle enough…
Tough to do when nobody but LeBron touches the ball.
If the Cavs can bring their lead down to 6 at least.
Biggest homer announcers I’ve ever heard. This is absolutely brutal. Worst announcers I’ve ever listened to.
Come on Cavs! Single digits going into halftime would be a big win!
SHUMP!! Off the nice feed from LBJ
Needed that one badly.
Well at least the defense is way better this quarter.
Moz! You gotta dunk that man!
Looked like LBJ was thinking oop… Mozerati didn’t read it properly.
Still… he needed to go back up for a dunk after the gather…
That was a TERRIBLE pass to the post by Shumpert.
Kyrie having a rough game, but I like the fight we’re starting to show. This might be a “learning” game for us.
Cavs have outscored the Hawks 19-15 this quarter so far…
Exactly! Deep breaths.
Kyrie and LBJ need to move the ball better. They keep trying to dribble out of trouble. ATL’s defensive game plan is to focus on those two and they don’t care about anyone else.
cavs just playing dumb right now and theres no hustle whatsoever on long rebounds
Hawks are also good. Good teams can make you look stupid and lazy, when in fact, you’re just getting beat.
agree but they are hustling and bringing energy cavs shouldn’t be tired they had day off and its top team in conf basically the team that would proven them from championship or reaching one…maybe team will figure it out after half
Get LeBron OUT OF THE FREAKIN’ GAME. He is absolutely TERRIBLE tonight. 6 turnovers already and not a clue on offense. He’s making terrible passes and can’t dribble. Nobody else touches the ball when he’s in there tonight.
Take him OUT PLEASE.
What is the cause, do you think? Is he trying to draw attention and it isn’t working? Or is he just ignoring the offense? 5 points on 6 shots and -16 in 17 minutes is pretty bad.
Lack of focus. He’s just sloppy. Just an “off” night but man it looks bad.
Seems like the Cavs should be down by a lot more than this… so that’s a positive…
It seems like we haven’t seen a consistent referee game in weeks. League wide.
These announcers are pathetic. Absolute clowns.
Carroll following the cue of the Pacers/Rockets/Raptors, banging and bumping LeBron and seeing if the refs will blow their whistles.
Now a phantom foul call….. SMH.
These refs are absolute garbage…
That is the most ridiculous possession.
Glad love is hot from 3, but this is also the perfect team to showcase him in the post. They don’t have any great shot blockers.
You’d think this is where Love in the post would make hay.
Put LeBron on the bench please. Good lord..
Nice to see LBJ post up there…. need more post ups against these undersized bigs.
Gotta foul Millsap on that drive… can’t just let him walk to the hoop…
Finally got an obvious call there.
Can the refs give Kyrie a call tonight?
Remember how one-sided it was on Wednesday for the Cavs against the Raps? This doesn’t seem much different, and the Raps came all the way back in that game…
Great ball movement!!! KLOVE FOR THREEEEEEE!!!!!
KLOVE FOR THREEE!!!!
Defense finally waking up. Keep it up, move the ball, and stay focused – they can pull it out. But its going to take pure effort for the next 30 minutes.
Some unhappy trolls taking over the board tonight. Deep breaths. It’s one game.
I think that’s an exaggeration… haven’t seen much trolling at all… Hawks are just good…
Who’s that? You can do the “its one game” thing only so many times. Hawks have beat them twice already. Everyone is healthy. There aren’t excuses anymore. Lose the game by a point or two because the Hawks are the better team tonight? Fine. Get blown out by 15 in the first quarter because you didn’t show up ready to play a great team? Not fine.
So then they’re better than the Cavs and you hope they don’t meet in the playoffs. What more do you want?
right now, yes. They are better than the Cavs. Our hope is that by the playoffs we are ready. Hawks are about as good as they’ll get. We are not. But yeah, I don’t want to see them in the playoffs if we had the choice.
I love that Blatt got a tech!
that official needs to be fined and fired from his job…not even a foul
I want to see every single bucket from this point on be assisted.
Whatever you do… do NOT hold your breath for that…
How many steps does Teague get to take on the drive?
3.5. Same as everybody else.
We cannot get a call…
Couldn’t really see an offensive foul on that LBJ drive… smh…
Acting job by Carroll…
it looked like he just gathered and went straight toward the basket. No unusual motion or intent.
There we go!!!! David Blatt with his first technical of his NBA career.
They should save it for him and present it after the game.
First Blatt tech of the season!
I’m glad. Been waiting for the fire to explode.
Way to go Blatt! Been waiting for that.
I’ll never understand, until the day he retires, why LBJ never made himself an 80% + free throw shooter. No reason he shouldn’t be.
100% agree with this
If I was a betting man… and I was in Vegas… I would ALWAYS bet on LBJ missing the first free throw after a “hard” foul…
TT has head on swivel he is getting lost and abused left and right
Not as badly as Moz was…
Kyrie fouled 2 or 3 times with no call, but converts the drive.
If they are trapping this hard and this much… there should ALWAYS be an open man for Cavs… gotta do a better job of finding who that is…
Well, it looks like the Cavs survived the first onslaught while they were warming up and the Hawks were playing the actual basketball game. Can they chip away 5 pts a quarter?
They’re playing zone defense against Kyrie…. he needs to move the ball quickly.
Worst defense we’ve played since before the trades.
Horford is going NUTS
Hawks are really clamping down on Kyrie…
They’re shading a big man over on his side of the floor constantly.
Why couldn’t Ferry put together teams like this in Cleveland?
They did win 60+ games in two seasons and went to a Finals…
He as only assistant GM. LBJ was GM. Most people forget that part.
He still had the job title though…
Need some defense here… offense is looking better! I think Kyrie actually got pass happy on the last play, looked like he had an “easy” lay up… at least easy for him hahaha!!!
Cavs starting to pick things up on D…
That’s was my 6 year old said. He asked where is lebron on the court. Does he look distracted to anyone other than us? Would like to know what the Hawks color team thinks.
Is that partly LBJ off the Court? LBJ -17. +5 with him sitting. Small sample size, but is he having one of those games?
Little late to the blog. Crazy in Columbus. The spring “swoll-stice” known as the Arnold Classic is in town. All kinds of traffic and drama as fitness gurus and competitors strut their stuff.
Paul milsap looks as if he could be a bodybuilder the way he was muscling up the cavs.
HAHAHA…. that’s funny, one of my high school buddies is competing in that this weekend!
Cool. Some people are tolerable. The fencing and martial arts with archers are humble. The bodybuilders can be but a few I met today smelled like 12 tuna cans and kombutcha tea. It was odd seeing the muscle girls too. I would even approach them to ask what their division was. Worried they would crush my skull.
HAHAHA…. My friend’s a bodybuilder… he’s nice guy though, pretty chill guy.
Totally agree.. not sure about women with huge muscles… can’t help but think they’re roiding up!
Hopefully you missed the worst part of the game.
DELLY RUN THAT OFFENSE!!!! THE CHAMP FOR THREEEEEEE!!!!
JFJ has been a godsend these last few weeks. Dear lord.
Hawks lose the shooter. Champ with another 3.
JAMES FREAKING JONES!!!!
1st qtr: Yet another reason to pay no attention to Cols
Hopefully he watched the first quarter…
Good foul by Delly… they should name that foul after him or something…
Almost didn’t get in time… very close to being a breakaway dunk!
Especially since it seems like the refs look at it on the tape 50% of the time… and they usually don’t call the clear path…
A foully? ……………
GREAT PASS KYRIE!!! RUDY FOR THREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Kyrie with a 180 pass for a Delly trey.
LeBron sits and the offense immediately moves the ball. I’d sit him until 3rd quarter.