Recap: Hawks 106, Cavs 97 (or, Pick Your Poison… )

The Cavs ran into the NBA’s equivalent of a mythical nine-headed monster last night in Atlanta. Dangerous because of the ability to kill you in so many different ways, and from so many different places, this Hawks team (like the monstrous hydra) lived up to its lethal label.

The Cavs were determined early to cut off the head responsible for three point shooting, but where one head got severed, two more sprouted in its place… in this case to kill them with pick and roll and guard penetration. And just when they seemed to be getting somewhere, that first head reared up one last time to bite them. Add in a few self-inflicted wounds… and it was a pretty poisonous night all around for the Cavs.

First Quarter:

Things started out ominously with an LBJ ISO play where Bron’s late in the shot clock turnaround fade-away jumper was blocked by the long arm of Al Horford. The Hawks looked to double LBJ and Kyrie early and often in this game, determined to take away passing lanes for both. On the other end, Atlanta relied early on a diverse attack of interior passing for easy big man scoring, dribble penetration and early offense. The Cavs countered nicely at first with a couple of KLove three-point bombs and a sick crossover move for a dunk in transition from LeBron. This bucket would be the last one they would convert for the next four minutes.

The Hawks struck from seemingly every direction in seemingly every way possible as they went on a 15-1 run, and executed a clinic on how to play motion offense. There were layups by nearly every starter (often early in the shot clock), and then from the bench (which goes at least nine or 10 deep). In fact, the only starter who didn’t score was the one man the Cavs seemed geared up to stop… Kyle Korver (he only took one shot). It hardly mattered since the Hawks constantly moved the ball, especially on the high pick and roll (10 of the 17 Atlanta baskets were assisted). The Cavs defense couldn’t stop it, or much of anything else in the quarter. They were like a perpetual motion machine…

The Cavs were able to scratch out a few scores towards the end of the quarter on two LBJ assisted baskets from TT and Shump, plus a trip to the line for TT and Bron, but the ball-hawking Hawks pressured both LBJ (three) and Kyrie (two) into turnovers. The Cavs also decided to pick “die by the three” as their poison for this quarter as they went 0-6 following KLove’s two early treys. Cavs trailed at the end of one ugly quarter… 36-19.

Second Quarter:

This quarter started promisingly enough with a Cavs counter-attack that featured a Kyrie dribble-drive and then three trade-off triples from The Champ and Delly to close the gap back to 10 (the first JFJ three came on the heels of four passes all the way around the horn). Meanwhile, Mike Scott and Denis Schroder took turns showing off the many scoring heads of the ATL monster, and Al Horford was just monstrous getting by TT on a baseline jam.

Gimme a “T!”

Then things got a little chippy on a Demarre Carroll foul of LBJ (one could probably win a lot of money if one was to bet on LeBron missing a free throw following a hard foul these days). The next time down the floor, LBJ got called for an offensive foul (on an acting job by Carroll that’s sure to be nominated), and something happened that had not happened all season… David Blatt finally went NUTS! The polite Princeton prolocutor unleashed his inner tiger and popped his Technical cherry. In fact, he looked so incensed that he nearly went for the daily double. This would ironically give the Cavs a sustained shot in the arm for the next quarter and a half.

Korver hit his only point of the first half on the Tech FT, and the Cavs were able to hold the beast at bay for nearly four minutes as they ratcheted up their defensive intensity and energy. But they were unable to take much advantage, only outscoring the Hawks 6-1 during the stretch (with a KLove triple and another magical drive from Kyrie). The Cavs continued to poison themselves with turnovers, getting three more from LBJ (not including a 24 second violation) and another from Kyrie to bring them up to 11 total for the half. Kyrie was able to steal one back though which resulted in an LBJ drive and kick for a timely Shumpert three to close the scoring and get the Cavs back to a 10 point deficit at the half… 53-43.

Third Quarter:

The second half began with a parade to the line by both teams. The Cavs, seemingly still being fueled by Blatt’s earlier technical, increased their intensity on both ends of the floor. After some miscues by the Hawks (some forced and some not), JR Swish assisted on a dunk for LBJ, and then nailed a triple to cut the lead to four. The Hawks took a timeout to regroup, but not before Al Horford tried to channel his inner Motombo to give Moz a good finger wagging for knocking him down (usually this is reserved for when you do something good, Al).

No, no, no…

Kyrie and Jeff Teague traded driving layups before LBJ swatted one away from Teague, and then Moz got fouled to go to the stripe. He sank them both to give the Cavs their first lead since the opening minute. The lead would be short-lived, however, as LBJ got his own tech foul for arguing what looked like another clean block (this time on Horford). The lead see-sawed until another threat emerged in Kent Bazemore who hit a wide open three. JR Swish tied it up again, and then the quarter turned into a free throw contest with both teams in the bonus.

Around this time, the Hawks dusted off yet another weapon by bringing Elton Brand off the bench. He combined with super-sub Schroder to score the last six points of the quarter for Atlanta. The Cavs attempted to answer with a barrage of missed threes (they went a poisonous 3-12 from distance in the quarter), but couldn’t convert. LBJ hit a tough 15-footer, but Schroder made a driving layup to finish off the scoring. The Cavs did make some headway with a 36 point quarter of their own… and outscored the Hawks by 13 following the Blatt technical. Cavs down just two 81-79.

Fourth Quarter:

When JR Smith blocked Kyle Korver to start the fourth, and then contested his bail-out three attempt, it seemed like a reminder that the Cavs had at least succeeded in cutting that particular head off this monster. But it was only a warning for what was about to be unleashed. After a turn-back-the-clock-block by Brand on Kyrie’s drive, Schroder finally found Korver on his patented curl route for a catch and shoot trey. The final head reared back and sank it’s teeth into the Cavs chances. Following a sick Kyrie drive, Korver missed his next one, but it resulted in a Mike Scott garbage bucket. Scott hit another in the post, just before the unofficial dagger three by Korver that pushed the lead back to 10.

With the Cavs now having to pay more attention to Korver, Schroder and Scott continued to wreak havoc, pushing the lead to 15 before a Shump three and LBJ drive and trip to the line stemmed the bleeding and cut it back to 10 with six minutes to go. LBJ and JR would make one more three apiece to offset a couple more Mike Scott buckets (he had his first double-digit game in weeks, scoring 14 points on nine shots), but the Cavs would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Despite having some opportunities to draw closer, the Cavs hurt themselves again with turnovers (five more this quarter) and missed threes (six more this quarter). But it was really Korver’s threes that seemed to break their spirit as they never really recovered. A dunk from Shump made the final tally a nine point loss (but it didn’t seem that close). Cavs lose 106-97.

The Evil:

The Cavs set out to try and take away the three point shot from the Hawks. In theory, this was a good plan, and it even bore out to a degree with Atlanta making just 6-21 for 29%. However, the Hawks fared just fine using their high pick and roll, guard penetration and interior passing to hammer the Cavs with 54 points in the paint.

The Cavs came out listless and flat-footed in the first quarter and put themselves in a deep hole, giving up 36 points before they tightened up the defense in the second and third quarters.

Moz and TT were generally ineffective at stopping the Hawks at the rim, and this was one of the few games where the Cavs got out-rebounded by a smaller team. Horford and Millsap are fairly quick for big men and got most of what they wanted inside.

Nobody really shot well (Kyrie was 7-11 inside the arc, but 0-5 from deep), as the Cavs shot only 42% as a team compared to giving up 51% to the Hawks.

The Cavs lived and (mostly) died by the three-ball. Aside from some KLove bombs early and some JR ones late, they went 13-38 as the Hawks packed the paint and trapped the ball-handlers, forcing the outside shots.

Turnovers killed the Cavs almost as much as the Hawks tough D did. They had 17 as a team, but LeBron (nine) and Kyrie (five) had the majority between them. They adjusted in the middle quarters, but didn’t take care of the ball in the first and fourth when the Hawks trapping D dominated, holding the Cavs to 19 and 18 points respectively.

The Cavs allowed six members of the Hawks nine-headed monster to reach double digits (including Schroder who was often even better than Teague, and Mike Scott who had been struggling). They shut down Korver for the most part, but allowed him to get loose for two dagger threes in the fourth.

The Genius:

The Cavs had a reversal of fortune that followed a similar pattern to their game against Toronto. This time though, they were the ones down by a ton to a team that was clicking… and they were the ones who had to fight and claw to get back into it. They did and even (as the Raps did to them) took a one point lead in the third. They gave themselves a chance going into the final period, but ran out of gas in the fourth.

Kyrie, although he wasn’t hitting from the outside, made several highlight reel drives and finishes at the rack. He was worth the price of admission.

JR consistently kept fighting all the way through the game. He played some great D on Korver (even blocking and contesting his first two attempts in the fourth), and hit some big shots.

LeBron had a tough game. He turned the ball over a lot, didn’t shoot particularly well, but still had eight assists. Plus, he made 7-8 from the line.  When asked about his performance after the game, he replied with a frank… “I suck.” He didn’t make excuses after the game… as with the missed free throws in Houston, he owned his poor performance. Let’s hope he learned something from it about not only himself, but how to play the Hawks in the future.

Bron might want to keep some of these handy…

While this was not one of David Blatt’s better games, hopefully, it was a learning experience for him as well. One thing he did accomplish though was his first technical foul as an NBA coach. And it seemed to work for him as the Cavs outscored the Hawks by 15 in the quarter and a half that followed it. It’s okay to get mad, Coach!

While there was no consolation in losing the season series to the Hawks, there was some consolation that the Cavs didn’t lose any ground in the EC race for a top three seed, as both the Bulls and Raps lost as well.

Final Thoughts:

Anyone who didn’t think the Hawks were legit before tonight, should re-examine their thinking. This team can hurt you in so many ways and go extremely deep in their rotation without much fall-off. They have no true stars, but they are a dangerous multi-headed monster of a team in the truest sense.

Another fairly brutal second night of a back-to-back awaits the Cavs back in Cleveland later today against the Suns. Here’s hoping they can dig deep for some payback on Phoenix, then rest up for their upcoming Texas two-step.