Live Thread: Hawks @ Cavs, Play-In Tournament

Tonight along the shores of Lake Erie, the Cavs welcome the Atlanta Hawks to a do or die game for the right to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. It is another “game of the year” for the young Cavs, who have been under playoff race pressure since the All-Star Break. The Cavs have a chance to keep a magical season going, or could be left dazed and confused wondering what happened to the magic. To add to the tension and drama, major breaking news:

Cavaliers All-Star center Jarrett Allen plans to go through pre-game warmups with the intention of playing vs. Atlanta in the Play-In Tournament tonight, but will make a final decision at gametime, sources tell ESPN. He’s been out since early March with a fractured finger.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 15, 2022

It looks like the Cavs are doing everything possible to keep playing, including giving Jarrett Allen a shot, which wouldn’t happen if there were a long term risk to his injury. It seems to be a matter of pain tolerance and conditioning as to whether Allen will play and how much.

From a basketball standpoint, there is plenty of intrigue about this game as a classic “strength vs. strength” battle between the Cavs’ defense and Hawks’ offense. The Hawks come in with one of the best offenses in the NBA, and the Cavs have consistently been a top defense, though everyone is well aware of the post-Rubio/post-Allen drop off. The obvious question of the night: How will the Cavs scheme for Trae Young? Will they blitz the pick and roll? or will they drop and force Trae to go for 40 or 50, of which he’s entirely capable. Conventional wisdom would dictate that you’d rather force Trae Young to score than pass, but who knows how Coach J.B. Bickerstaff will play it.

From a statistical standpoint, it’s actually interesting how these teams mirror each other with exception of one important category: turnovers. The real question for the Cavs is overcoming their youth and lack of experience.The Cavs have no playoff experience outside of their veteran role players. It will be an enormous mental and emotional challenge for the Cavs to stay positive in the face of mistakes and adversity. If the Cavs are to compete and win, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Love, and Caris LeVert will have to do some heavy lifting in order to ballast all of the youth and inexperience.The Cavs are going to make mistakes, they need their junkyard dawg mentality for 48+ minutes.

Tip off is scheduled for 7:30PM ET and will be broadcasted live on ESPN, Go Cavs!