Recap: Cavs 94, Hawks 82 (or, “You Smell Something Burning?”)

In 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman marched his union forces through Atlanta, destroying nearly everything in his path, and leaving the city not much more than a smoldering ruin. A little more than 150 years later, LeBron Raymone James led his rag-tag band of teammates on their own journey to do some damage in Atlanta, but this time it was merely the Hawks and their home court advantage that went up in flames.

With a long list of wounded, including two of his “big three” partners, LBJ found a way to marshall all of the remaining King’s men and exhort them into helping him thoroughly dismantle Atlanta’s once mighty basketball team. The latest casualty was Kyrie Irving, whose legs had finally betrayed him during the initial skirmish of Game 1. However, the Cavs “next man up” philosophy ensured that there would be no drop off in intensity or will. And they would show the Hawks no mercy, torching them on their own floor, in front of their disbelieving fans (many of whom fled for the exits to escape the conflagration).

What began as a fairly hotly contested game in the first half, turned in the third quarter when the Cavaliers cranked up their defense to smothering. Using a 24-9 run to push their lead out to 20, the Cavs blew away the Hawks, and blazed their way to a commanding 2-0 series lead.

56 Candles

If his comments at the morning shootaround were any indication, you’ve got to believe that David Blatt got what he wished for when he blew out the 56 candles on his birthday cake today. Aside from the obligatory desire for world peace, health for all (and an answer for the high pick-n-roll), he just wanted a win. Well he got one. But lest you think it was all about the wish, just know that Mr. Blatt is doing a masterful job of game planning what the Cavs are doing in these playoffs (especially on the road where they’re now an amazing 6-1).

Blatt has this team laser focused. Everyone knows their roles and is highly motivated to give everything they have, every night. He’s also exploiting match-ups, finding the right combinations of lineups (despite not having either Kevin Love or Kyrie Irving to call on), making the switch between big and small lineups at the right moments and helping the Cavs dictate a pace of play that has hamstrung the high-speed Hawks offense. Granted, the execution on both sides of the ball comes down to the players, but Blatt and his top notch assistants are setting the table for the Cavs overwhelming success in this series.

Mike Budenholzer might be the NBA’s Coach of the Year, but he’s looked downright defeated on both the sidelines and in his pressers, especially when compared to his “rookie” counterpart. For Blatt, with every post-game interview comes validation, while for Bud, it’s only exasperation. When one reporter asked him the question of “how do you stop LeBron going forward,” it seemed to take a small eternity before Bud could even process what the answer might be. May as well ask “what is the sound of one hand clapping?”

Can Robots Overheat?

LeBron James took things to another level in Game 2, falling just one rebound short of his 12th career playoff triple double. With word coming about an hour before game time that Kyrie would be sitting this one out, LBJ knew from the jump that he’d have to shoulder a large percentage of the ball-handling duties, in addition to looking for his shot, grabbing rebounds and defending. Amazingly, even though he distributed the ball like a cyborg octopus (racking up 11 assists), he didn’t have his first one until more than halfway through the second quarter. Once he got going though, he was nearly unstoppable, dishing dimes almost exclusively to Cavs standing beyond the arc, including this one that was positively Globetrotter-esque…

And even though he was more focused on passing, he was still alternately attacking the rim, posting up and even hitting a couple of his own from three, putting up 30 points on 10-22 shooting. At one point in the third quarter, LeBron was responsible for scoring or assisting on 33 of 49 the teams previous points. True to his word following Game 1, LeBron cut out the “nonsense” and didn’t resort to the “ground and pound” Le-ISO heavy prevent offense in the fourth quarter either. Even though the Cavs had a bit of trouble getting buckets in the final frame (just 10 points, and none after LBJ left with three minutes remaining), their defense kept them safely in front.

There was one moment though, where it looked like LeBorg might have short circuited at the end of the third quarter carnage. He just kept attacking the Hawks backboard long after the buzzer, and might have required a new fuse (maybe somebody told him he just passed “The Logo” Jerry West for 11th all time combined regular season and playoff scoring).

The LeBron bot is twitching out https://t.co/p5pdcP3eZR

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 23, 2015

Fire When Ready…

With Kyrie missing, the starting backcourt of Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova seemingly had their work cut out for them. They knew that the Atlanta guards Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver and Dennis Schröder would be smelling blood and coming for them hard in Game 2. All these two former members of the bench mob did was throw it all right back at the Hawks, and then some.

Between them, they shut down Atlanta’s two waterbug point guards, and marathon running shooting guard, holding them to 15-38 (39%) shooting and just 5-15 (33%) from deep. Shump and Delly hounded the Hawk guards all over the floor, closing them out on the perimeter and bodying them up on drives in the paint.

The gasoline on the fire (or in Blatt’s case, frosting on the birthday cake) was the offense these two provided. Iman picked up nearly where J.R. left off in Game 1, knocking down four three-point bombs, and scoring 16 points with four rebounds. He was a game high +27. Even though Delly’s shot wasn’t falling in the first half, he still managed to hit a couple of threes of his own for 11 points to go with six boards and four assists in 37 minutes. Together, the dynamic duo managed to outscore the Hawks backcourt 27-24. Since Delly got to share the podium with Bron and TT after his heroics in Game 6 of the Bulls series, Shump got the nod for his two way play tonight.

"This guy next to me is a future NBA All-Defensive Teamer." – LeBron on Shump's #PodiumGame#ALLinCLE pic.twitter.com/ELwd4z6xEi

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) May 23, 2015

From Arsonist to Larcenist

It was just J.R. Smith (instead of Swish) for Game 2, as Earl couldn’t quite recapture his unconscious “En Fuego” zone from Wednesday. But, despite going just 3-8 (1-3 from deep), he did come up with a couple of very timely steals, and played superlative defense. He also had maybe the highlight drive of the game where he channelled his inner Uncle Drew…

JR Smith finishes the reverse layup with style! #NBAvine @cavs https://t.co/xZ3u57Sown

— NBA (@NBA) May 23, 2015

J.R.’s partner in crime for the night was a more surprising figure. James “Stealing” Jones picked a couple pockets of his own, grabbing some extra possessions for the Cavs. He also rediscovered his silky stroke, canning 3-5 three balls for nine points and a huge lift off of the bench.

1400º C (Or The Temperature At Which Glass Melts)

Tristan Thompson was even hotter than Canadian Dynamite on the boards in Game 2. He was full on “Glass-Fuego.” He didn’t just play above the rim, he set up permanent residence there. He outrebounded the entire front line of the Hawks 16-14, playing a game high 41 minutes while manning the middle. He also had a hand on several more caroms that he tapped for other Cavs to retrieve. While he missed some close range shots and had some trouble ooping some too-high Delly alleys, he did finally get one from Bron in the fourth that he threw down with authority. The other part of TT’s game that abandoned him this night was his free-throw shooting. Though he’s been much improved thus far in the playoffs, he was just 3-9 from the stripe. Fortunately, it didn’t really do much damage. He also had two blocks, and it should have been three after he did this to Kent Bazemore…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EXpvHm8xxo

TT’s frontcourt mate,  Timofey Mozgov, had a more quietly effective night. Even though the Hawks smaller lineup limited the Iron Curtain’s time on the floor to just 25 minutes, he was still able to snag seven rebounds and affect the game by changing several shots at the rim. In addition, he also showed off a bit of his long range, hitting a shot that was nearly a three, as well as another sweet mid-ranger. Give him 10 points, and some confidence in his ability to help stretch the floor going forward.

The Hawking Wounded

Demarre Carroll is an absolute warrior. After seeing the injury he suffered on Wednesday toward the end of Game 1, I would have bet he was done for the rest of the season, let alone the rest of the series. Once the MRI results revealed no structural damage, it still seemed like a longshot that we’d see him until at least Game 4. Yet, the reports kept coming out that he might try to give it a go, and Coach Bud refused to confirm or deny. Minutes before game time, Demarre gimpily ran out onto the floor with the rest of the Hawks. Not only did he start the game, but he amazingly played a team high 34 minutes, doing his best to at least get in LeBron’s way on defense.

After the game, he explained why he’d risk his impending free agency to gut it out on the court…

“I wouldn’t turn this chance down,” Carroll said. “I wouldn’t turn this opportunity down for the world. I would’ve gone out there on one leg. At the end of the day, it’s about the team. It’s not about myself. We worked too hard for me to just give up like that.”

The Hawks and their fans are lucky to have the man they call “Junkyard Dog.” They’d be well served to try and get him re-signed in the off-season.

After hitting a couple early threes, Kyle Korver joined the M*A*S*H list in the third quarter when he sprained his right ankle after Delly rolled into him while the two were chasing a loose ball. Korver hobbled down the floor on the ensuing possession, then limped off the floor into the locker room and did not return. Korver was seen on crutches in the locker room after the game, but it was reported that X-Rays on his ankle were negative.

A few minutes later, in the opening possession of the fourth quarter, Hawks big man Al Horford banged his right knee on Iman’s knee. Horford went to the bench for examination but returned to action. Still, neither Horford, nor Paul Millsap could get much going either in the scoring column or on the glass tonight.

“Blaze”More

After the game, Hawks guard, Kent Bazemore was still pretty adamant about the Hawks chances of coming back in the series.

“We played them in the regular season this year and got the best of them,” Bazemore said in reference to the Hawks’ 3-1 record against the Cavs this past season. “I still think we’re the better team. We just haven’t shown it yet.”

He did have a moment where he got pretty chippy when trying to guard LeBron, and gave a bit of foreshadowing on how he thinks the Hawks can return the favor once the series shifts to Cleveland.

“The bright side is we haven’t played well the first two games. We still think we’re the better team. We’ll try to get two up in Cleveland,” Bazemore said. “We’ve got to play angry.”

Maybe he’s just still hot about TT’s awesome rejection that wasn’t…

Final Burn

Who better than one of Georgia’s favorite sons (and one of the Cavs all-time greats) to put a final exclamation point on the Cavs Game 2 victory…

Great game for @cavs! They completely dominated that game! Can you imagine being at the Q on Sunday? That place will be on FIRE!

— Mark Price (@Mark25Price) May 23, 2015

10 down… six to go…