Recap: Hawks 127, Cavs 98 (Or, revenge is a dish best served engulfed in flames)

2014-12-18 Off By Tom Pestak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuPHF7_eWYk#t=22s

If you can believe it, this game was knotted at zero for more than two minutes.  Slowly, both teams started to see their shots trickle in.  The Cavs then went on a 19-6 run prompting tweets like “that escalated quickly.”  As the 1st quarter clock wound down, LeBron elicited wild reactions after he “broke” Thabo Sefalosha’s ankles and hit Matthew Dellavedova on the right wing for three.  Brendan Haywood, AJ Price, and Kyrie Irving were shown in a goofy delirium and both teams went back to their respective benches.  Longtime Spurs assistant Mike Budenholzer handed each one of his boys a P-Wing, Star, and Tanooki Suit and they each swallowed them all at once and chased them with ten 5-Hour Energys (giving them 50 continuous hours of super power energy).  The Cavs waddled back and forth like koopa troopas before getting their shells flipped the heck upside down and kicked into oncoming Bullet Bills.  Here are the highlights:

 This game doesn’t deserve a typical recap since there was no drama after the half.  I’ll just point out a few things.

1.) In the second quarter the Hawks essentially ran the same play every time.  They penetrated from the left side of the half-court to the middle of the paint using either dribble penetration or a drop step from post position on the left block (Millsap and Horford).  The Cavs countered this action by collapsing into the paint using the defender responsible for the right block/baseline area.  Back in November a similar thing happened and the Hawks (missing DeMarre Carroll) generated a fair number of open looks for Thabo Sefolosha.  Here’s what happened then:

Screen Shot 2014-11-15 at 10.48.23 PM

Here’s what happened tonight:
Screen Shot 2014-12-17 at 11.18.02 PMThat’s not the half that’s the second quarter alone.

The Cavs were 13-17 from three point land at the half of the previous meeting.  The Hawks were 12-18 tonight.  The difference between those two games is that the Cavs were still very much in the game at the half tonight.  But Atlanta was just getting started.

2.) The Hawks shot chart is 3s and layups.  And honest to God more than 2/3 of their made threes were so wide open they could have taken a selfie before they shot each one.  The Cavs took a lot of mid-range shots off one leg.

Screen Shot 2014-12-17 at 11.35.57 PM

3.) Between watching the Tyreke Evans reverse-layup-line show and now this game it is clear that the Cavs as constructed are not a championship caliber team.  There are funks and off nights, hot shooting teams and transcendent stars – all sorts of singular events that can embarrass an otherwise solid team.  But the Cavs are slow, small, and soft and I don’t see any antidote to completely change these weaknesses.  They can certainly play a heck of a lot smarter on defense than they did the last few games but tonight it felt like each Cav had decidedly slower foot speed that the Hawk he was attempting to stay in front of (to no avail).  Without any rim protection (the small) the natural way to prevent layup lines is to shrink the floor: collapse and recover and all that.  It’s easy to collapse, much harder to recover.  The Cavs have been getting killed by dribble penetration since LeBron left in 2010.  Name the player on this team that when called upon can deny or degrade dribble penetration?  Kyrie did an admirable job in the 1st quarter – but the wheels just fell off after that.  It’s way too easy to generate easy looks against this team right now.  And outside of that valiant 4th quarter against the Raptors and a few quarters here and there during the 8-game winning streak, the Cavs can’t impose their will on teams defensively.  They are soft.  LeBron and/or KLove in the post is being used like an extraneous facet, not a leverage point.  There are no hard fouls, no overwhelming transition attacks.  Tonight the Hawks were bigger, faster, stronger from the end of the 1st quarter until the final buzzer sounded.

4.) It’s not even worth mentioning the offensive issues (and I see many) when you give up 127 points in 46 minutes.

5.) The Hawks disrupted entry passes on three different occasions tonight (passes that would have put the Cavs in an advantageous situation) by kicking the ball.

6.) Shelvin Mack was what I would call a “solid player” at Butler.  He was like a poor-man’s Mike Conley – steady, heady, and a physical defender.  It wasn’t like he was Steph Curry tonight.  He was 6-6 on threes (after having made nine all season) because he got some burn and he was WIDE OPEN ALL NIGHT.

7.) Varejao amassed three fouls, no other Cavalier starter had more than two.  The Hawks made as many threes as they attempted free throws.  Put another way, the Hawks scored 114 free-throw-less points in 46 minutes.  The Cavs aren’t making anyone feel them.

8.) The Cavs continue to lead the NBA in 1st quarter scoring.  They are averaging more than 4 points better than their opponents in 1st quarters on the season (+17/48) and giving teams life with lethargic 2nd quarter play (-10/48).  Saw it again tonight.  Many people (including me) have complained about David Blatt’s insistence on funky lineups that don’t feature any of K/L/L.  Tonight the more damning indictment was that the Cavs literally got beat by the same action five times in half a quarter.  Blatt called timeout after back to back triples from the right wing, the Cavs subbed in LeBron and Varejao, (his two most veteran players and arguably his best defenders) and the Cavs continued to get decimated by the same action.  It’s like they were shell-shocked and powerless to stop it –  just simple dribble penetration or entry passes on the left side and a lone ranger spotted up on the right wing with the option to shoot or swing it to the top of the key.

9.) What’s the antidote?  I don’t know.  They really aren’t making teams work hard on defense since they gladly fire away from the perimeter off two-man pick and pop action without moving half the defenders.  Defensively they are getting blown by and seem to allow a scrub-fuego to go off every night.  They lack rim protection and a true wing stopper.  Collectively they seem to get overwhelmed with athleticism – playing on their heels during these huge runs they give up.  I am reminded of the talented Lakers of 2008 that were completely destroyed by the disruption of Rajon Rondo as well as last year’s Heat that suddenly looked old and slow in the face of the Spurs onslaught.  It doesn’t seem like growing pains anymore.

10.) The Cavs should be embarrassed.  No more growing pains, no more happy talk.  They should be embarrassed and terrified of the Hawks.  They should start approaching these games like they are the young and hungry team looking to knock off these perennial contenders – not the other way around.  They are the hunted right now.

11.)  Lots of people saying things tonight like “whoa the Hawks did that WITHOUT Jeff Teague.”  As if the margin of victory could have been 60 if only Teague had played the minutes of the hapless Shelvin Mack and Dennis Schroder, who were, ya know, completely engulfed in flames.  If Jeff Teague plays 48 minutes tonight and goes 11-14 from the field for 34 points and ratchets 13 assists to just 2 turnovers then the Hawks would have looked exactly like they looked tonight.

Flying_Phoenix

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