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!
Fourth quarter is when star power needs to show up. Kyrie, I’m looking at you.
big 12 minutes right here Cavs gotta move…avoid cross court passing and need to hit wide open shots and of course stop point guard penetration for easy layups
man those missed three’s by delly really hurt gotta hit those shots…think cavs will stick shumpert in rest of game after that sequence
Cavs with a 36 point quarter of their own to get back in it!
This should be a helluva fourth quarter…
Next possession, do NOT give the ball to LeBron on the wing.
Cavs are giving up SO MANY guard penetrations tonight…
That was a tough call on KLove… it looked like the right call, but tough…
Good to see him drive, would have been good for him to get rewarded.
Having to watch the game on Hawks streaming is really painful.
I’m gonna be really bummed out if there isn’t at least ONE ATL PG doesn’t get put on his ASS tonight on a drive…
TT hitting some big time throws after a big time rebound in traffic!
I like this Cavs team. Damn. Nobody wants to see us in the playoffs. got some stuff to clean up but the mental aspect is strong.
Nique’s statue looks scared…
I saw him play when his career was over and he was in Greece. The Greeks loved him but surely not highlight reel anymore. He always was in the offensive stance though. Bird was right.
TOR lost and CHI’s about to lose!!!
Schroder and Carroll are both pains in the butt on D. They could both be fouled out in a few minutes of play.
Great defensive possession right there!!!
Bulls and Raptors lose
cavs are never consistently moving on offense….so weird….if you move around you will get open shots
a lot of the offense is 1 and 4 spread drive and kick offense. Which by design is a lot of standing around watching LeBron and being ready for a pass that may come at any time.
lot of chirping going on. cavs gotta shut these guys up.
Can only do that with strong play, good D and a win…
If I was on the Hawks… I would shave Denis Schroder’s blonde patch while he was sleeping….
Lol I agree a 100%. Is really ugly.
missing free throws will catch up to cavs…..come on now!
Don’t know what TT could have done there… Millsap looked like he fell down…
Cavs with the lead. then a dumb T on james
bad call. but come on Lebron stay composed.
Kevin might be worse at free throws right now than LBJ…
Let’s hope the Cavs will have enough energy to finish them up in the 4th.
I think they need a timeout, or a sub or two. They’re flagging a bit now after getting back even. And here’s Delly!
Elton Brand sighting….
Starters are still in. Definitely a playoff type game.
SOMEBODY needs to put Teague on his ASS! Paging Mr. Perkins…
JR SWISH!!!!!!!
Kyrie is a wizard. Love his game
Bazemore is a POS
Bazemore is a glorified D-Leaguer…
Ball don’t lie!
These refs just blow their whistles at everything….
Three steps for Horford there…
These refs are a joke….
Cavs have outscored the Hawks 33-19 since the David Blatt technical…
Defense wins championships and the Cavs are showing their D. Let’s go Cavs!!!
here we go Cavs! great block by Lebron!
Nice went to Moz in the post… foul!!!
Mozgov is a freight train.
No more open shots for the Hawks!
BLOCKED BY LEBRON!!!!
Hornets pulling away from the Raptors, up 17 inside 4 minutes. Pacers up 9 on the Bulls with 4 1/2 to go.
Thanks for the update Phil!!! Good news!
Phil is on it. I was wondering what the league happenings were.
There’s no one who can stay in front of Teague…. Luckily the same is true for KYRIE!!!
That was a good play by Kyrie, early offense.
Good point… need more of that!
New ballgame….
Let’s Go! Keep the energy up!!!
Hawks actually looking a little tired . . . a little slower than they way they started out.
I don’t understand how we aren’t beating this team
Did you WATCH the first quarter?
So, will these officials start tightening up before the game gets out of hand?
Feels like the raptors game but in reverse.
How the hell are we losing?
hawks are really good and had strong first quarter….cavs finally awake at wheel
Hawks were pumped in the first quarter because of the pregame Wilkins ceremony. Cavs seem to be weathering the storm.
should horford get a T for pointing a finger at Mozzy?
Was he telling him he’s No. 1?
Somewhere dikembe mutumbo is giggling like a school girl.
JR SWISH!!!
LET’S GO CAVS! LET’S GO CAVS!
Moz just getting no position under the hoop on either end…
And when he did, he fumbled a pass from Love that was right in the breadbasket.
KLove!! Still shooting strong
Korver is so quiet tonight…I’m kinda scared.
Seems like they are overplaying the shooters on the outside and therefore the PnR is open a lot…
Payback foul… Kyrie gets shots… at least the refs are being equally bad for both teams…
JR with a Waiters 2. Then Cavs manage to leave both the pick and the roll man open on D.
is teague really this good or are the cavs the worst p n roll def?
Atlanta runs it almost every play so it’s just more exposed this game…
JR needs to do more of that… he’s got a good shot off the dribble…
How was he in the “act of shooting?”
Attacked inside 1st two possessions… at least that’s a good sign. Kyrie needed to pass the ball better to Love, he would’ve been wide open for a 3.
I swear that Teague travels on every drive…
LeBron tries to throw it away again, Hawks bail him out.
10 turnovers in the 1st half…. 6 for LBJ and 3 for Kyrie.
Well, they are the only ones who handle the ball…
Well the Hawks only scored 17 points in the 2nd quarter. 2 more quarters of that type of defensive effort from the Cavs and maybe they can pull this W.
Let’s hope… need to play inspired ball on both ends to win…
WOW… ATL with 30 points in the paint and 55% FG.
Better than the 71% they were shooting after one…
But they haven’t been to the FT line much… they’re a jump shooting team. Need to pound them inside like GSW…. play inside-out.
first 5 minutes of this quarter will dictate game cavs really have to come out and put foot down and close this gap or this game will be out of reach
Charlotte and Indiana may well take down the Raptors and Bulls tonight. A win tonight would be huge on many levels.
Wonder if Nique gets to take that speed painting home with him… hope he brought his truck…
The painting at least looks like a person. So it’s got that going for it.
Good to see the Cavs cut into the lead a bit.
Yeah, they only gave up 17 points after hemmorhaging 36 in the first quarter…
Then need to do it two more times. Gain five a quarter. Going to have to grow up during the game. This last few games have been good playoff tests. Getting them up for the intensity and quality of opponents.
Hopefully, the jump shots ATL was making during the 1st half, don’t fall in the 2nd half. If the Cavs move the ball, they can put some pressure on the Hawks.