Any True Believers still left around here?

There won’t be terribly many snooping around Quicken Loans Arena for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight (8:30 PM Eastern, TNT, 92.9 FM in ATL), not after the Atlanta Hawks disintegrated at home by allowing LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to dictate the pace and style of play over the course of two games. There will be even fewer TBs now, considering a Krucial Komponent of Hawks basketball is now out of Kommission for the playoffs.

The Hawks are left not only to wrangle with the Seth Rollins of the league, but also his J&J Security associates. Thanks to Matthew Dellavedova’s Australian Rules Basketball play, Kyle Korver’s severely sprained ankle will sideline him for the remainder of the postseason, and with that, fading hopes for a first-ever trip to the NBA Finals have been shelved. Al Horford had to be helped off the floor in Game 2, and the valiant DeMarre Carroll’s mobility was clearly hampered by the knee injury he sustained in Game 1.

No matter how disappointing his postseason performances have been, Korver (35.5 playoff 3FG%) had been arguably the best strategic decoy since Terrell Owens’ tenure with the Cowboys. His threat of the home run ball opened up doubles and triples all over the floor for Atlanta along the quest to the team’s first-ever ECF. But the Hawks have not recouped the benefits of all the attention draped onto Korver.

While Kyle was merely 4-for-10 on threes in two games against the Cavs, his teammates have managed to shoot just 6-for-39 against Cleveland and 31.5 3FG% for the entire playoffs. By comparison, the cavalier J.R. Smith’s teammates are 13-for-41 from downtown, still bad but twice as good as Atlanta. Korver’s defensive activity in the postseason (4.9 defensive RPG, 1.4 SPG, 1.1 BPG) got easily overlooked as well, and it will be up to Kent Bazemore to fill the void on that end of the floor.

Atlanta was psychologically crumbling well before the physical shortfalls kicked in, though, and that is largely due to the superior coaching strategies coming from Cleveland’s sideline. The Hawks have been attacking Cleveland’s defense as if it’s still being directed by Mike Brown. But first-year NBA coach David Blatt became a legend at overseas power Maccabi Tel Aviv by designing defenses that compelled opponents to settle for the shots they didn’t want. The Hawks begrudgingly took 17 two-pointers outside the paint in Game 2, connecting on just 3 of them.

Grant Blatt a player-coach in LeBron James (30.5 PPG, 8.5 APG) who’s using high pick-and-rolls and dribble penetration to get any shots his team wants, and it becomes too much for even healthy teams to overcome. Having a superstar is nice, but it’s infinitely better when said star can make tough shots, take care of the ball, defend, and keep teammates actively involved throughout the game. Thus far in this series, LeBron is checking off all the boxes.

While LeBron is aptly attacking the Hawks like wounded animals and pulling apart their defense like BBQ pork, Jeff Teague (5.0 APG, 40.0 FG%) and Paul Millsap (26.3 FG% this series, 8.5 PPG, 1.5 offensive RPG) have thus far failed to take every strategic advantage they can get from the absences of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, respectively.

Tristan Thompson has contained Millsap to this point in the series, but he and Timofey Mozgov, while better athletic options than Nene and Gortat, cannot withstand 35-plus minutes of assertive pace-pushing from Sap and Horford (0-for-3 FGs outside the paint in Game 2). Atlanta’s frontcourt All-Star duo must establish a dominant full-court role to shake the Cavs’ defense out of their comfort zones.

There is little pressure on Blatt to utilize Irving until the Cavs are in a position to clinch. In any case, it’s incumbent on Teague, Dennis Schröder, and Shelvin Mack to penetrate and find their frontcourt mates in positions to catch and score swiftly, via shots or drives. The point guards are at their best when they put their floor mates in the ideal position to succeed.

Carroll will be in better condition to stick with James for longer stretches, allowing Mike Budenholzer to use Baze more as a roving perimeter pest, cooling off shooters like Smith and Iman Shumpert before they find a hot hand. He’ll need to hit some shots as well to keep Cleveland’s defense (Shumpert, in particular) from doubling down on the Hawks’ top threats.

Somewhere in Northeast Ohio, the order has gone out for wine-and-gold confetti, enough to fill up an arena floor in time for Tuesday. Despite being mired in a two-game hole, the Hawks have two opportunities to make Dan Gilbert's confetti purchase a sunk cost. Atlanta can force LeBron and his merry henchmen to try clinching a trip to the NBA Finals somewhere away from the Q. Perhaps the Hawks could even give the Cavs two chances to advance... back Down South.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3