At some point during the three seconds it took LeBron James to turn the corner on Paul Millsap, blowing past Al Horford and sending Kyle Korver scurrying toward Buckhead in the process, the Hawks must have wondered how it got to this point.
The LeBron James factor is real, as the Hawks learned first-hand
The Hawks had their chances, but in the end there wasn’t much they do about LeBron James as the Cavaliers claimed Game 1.
They had survived a pair of J.R. Smith onslaughts and even managed to secure the defensive glass after a frightening first quarter when Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov played taps. They had even played their way through a dreadful third quarter, a potentially devastating knee injury to DeMarre Carroll and had somehow trimmed a 16-point deficit to just four. All they needed was a stop. Instead, they got a freight train.
So much of the pre-series analysis boiled down to one essential fact: The Cavs have LeBron and the Hawks don’t have a countermove.
James finished with 31 points, eight rebounds and six assists and tellingly took only one shot from behind the arc because he did almost all of his work in the paint. He's too big and powerful for Carroll to handle down low and whenever the Hawks' guards switched off high screens, which was often, he attacked them mercilessly. This was a game when Atlanta clearly missed Thabo Sefolosha. But at 6'5 and 215 pounds he wasn't winning a physical battle with James either.
Read more
The Hawks had so many moments they'd like to do over, but if they were being honest with themselves, they'd look back at the second quarter when their offense was clicking and Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder were having their way with an obviously limited Kyrie Irving. The Hawks had a chance to put a little distance between themselves and Cleveland, but they went into halftime with a tie game because it was during that second quarter when LeBron went 7-for-9 and there wasn't anything Atlanta could do about it.
That’s the thing with LeBron games these days. His dominant flashes can happen at any time, but they tend to occur at the exact moment when his team really needs them. LeBron can’t do it alone, but he doesn’t need a lot of help. Smith knocked down eight three-pointers and provided the secondary scoring punch the Cavs desperately needed with Irving reduced to a stationary jump shooter. They also got a big lift from Thompson, who was all over the offensive glass.
The Hawks could rationalize both events. In a long series, J.R. is as likely to shoot you out of a game as he is to put on a show like he did in Game 1. Thompson and Mozgov feasted on the boards at times, but that only turned into a 12-9 advantage in second-chance points. They may have even found a temporary solution to the LeBron conundrum by having Paul Millsap pick him up at center court. But they can’t stop James for 48 minutes and there will also be those moments when there’s not a thing they can do about him.
Beyond the LeBron factor and Smith's incredible run of shotmaking, what truly stood out about Game 1 was how vulnerable both teams are at this juncture. With Korver unable to break loose of Iman Shumpert, the Hawks have become dependent on Teague and Schroder to create offense. Teague, in particular, was brilliant at times but there were too many wasted possessions for him to carry the load full-time. Schroder is a roller coaster even in his best moments.
The Cavs turned Atlanta’s guards into scorers -- Teague and Schroder took a staggering 34 of Atlanta’s 77 shots -- which minimized the typically effective Al Horford to just 12 shots, while Millsap and Carroll couldn’t get going at all. Their bench remains fraught with peril.
The Cavs, meanwhile, can't depend on J.R. going off every night. If he does it will be a short series. Irving is clearly limited with his numerous leg ailments and Shump, James Jones and Matthew Dellavedova combined to go 1-for-16. Once Smith returned to this orbit and Millsap picked up LeBron, the Cavs' fourth quarter offense was reduced to plodding isolations that went nowhere.
Both teams will have to pick up their games as the series moves along. The Hawks aren’t likely to go 4-for-23 from three-point range again and the Cavs will have to continue to find secondary scoring punch from someone other than James. Neither team was in top form, but the Cavs margin for error is so much greater simply because they have the best players in the series.
A few other notes and observations:
* DeMarre Carroll was a classic journeyman when he arrived in Atlanta two years ago. He had never been a full-time starter and he bounced between four teams in two years, getting waived twice in the process. Carroll made his rep providing energy and defense, but he transformed himself under Mike Budenholzer into an invaluable two-way wing player. Carroll is set to hit free agency this summer and stood to make more in the first season of a new contract than he had in the previous six combined. The preliminary diagnosis is a knee sprain, which would be a welcome relief to everyone.
* Tristan Thompson is also set to become a free agent this summer, albeit a restricted one. It’s long been a running joke that Thompson will get paid because he shares an agent with LeBron. But Thompson has earned a big payday on his own with his relentless energy on the offensive boards and defense. He’s a critical player in this series because he can guard either Millsap or Horford, depending on the lineup. Thompson and Mozgov played Millsap and Horford to a draw and that’s one matchup the Hawks have to win.
* Of all the trades that went down during the season, the most important was the series of deals Cleveland GM David Griffin pulled off in acquiring Shumpert, Smith and Mozgov. All three were key figures in the Cavs’ second-half resurgence. While Smith’s shooting was obviously the highlight of Game 1, Shumpert’s defense on Kyle Korver was a huge factor in mucking up the Hawks’ offensive sets. Korver got off only five shot attempts in Game 1 as Shumpert stayed with him over screens and didn’t give him any space. As much as they needed J.R.‘s scoring punch and Mozgov’s defensive presence, Shumpert gave them the wing defender that makes their defense complete.
See More:
