“A Tribe Called Champs!”
It was the week of Atlanta’s discontent, May 2nd through 9th of this year. And TV viewers were subjected not only to another tidy four-game sweep of the Hawks at the hands of tonight’s opponents, the Cleveland Cavaliers (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, Fox Sports Ohio, NBATV, 92.9 FM in ATL), but also the incessant ESPN ads promoting an upcoming “30 for 30” special.
“Believeland” was the title, showcasing the Beleaguered Land of sports off the shores of the occasionally flammable Lake Erie in Northeast Ohio. Viewers were subjected to the abject failures and disastrous annual denouements of Cleveland’s pro athletes over the past five decades. The intention was to tug at your heartstrings, to get you to empathize with a town pulling for its lovable loser teams, one of whom might, one day, finally kick Lucy’s football through the uprights.
Hawks fans didn’t know for sure at the time, but their team helped usher that day into being, just over a month after their postseason came to a screeching halt. Not only did the Cavaliers goad Golden State into shaking off a hex that harrowed Cleveland since 1964, but their baseball brethren nearly followed suit, coming within one victory of their first World Series title since 1948.
A lot has changed in once-sad-sack Cleveland since the last time the Hawks visited The Q. Heck, but for a 2011 draft-day blockbuster trade involving Julio Jones, who knows what the Browns might have accomplished by now?
It began against Detroit in the opening round, but it was against Atlanta in the Eastern Conference semis that the Cavs finally found, and fully embraced, their true identity under coach Tyronn Lue: a three-point shooting team that feasts off of home-metro favorite LeBron James as the Association’s ultimate decoy.
LeBron (7.8 APG vs. ATL in playoffs) drives: kick, swing, swish. James posts up: dish, spot-up, splash. Time out, Hawks! Go to break. “What if I told you…”
Well before Kyrie Irving drained a series-clincher in Steph Curry’s deadeye, he was 12-for-18 in the Hawks series from deep. Kevin Love (19-for-40 3FGs), suddenly, seemed relevant. J.R. Smith was doing a full Petey Pablo, taking his shirt off and spinning it ‘round like a helicopter, before nailing 14 of his 28 attempts, many with a desperate Hawk hand perched in his face. The ghosts of Channing Frye (11-for-19 3FGs) and Richard Jefferson (5-for-6 3FGs) were summoned. Even Iman Shumpert (5-for-6 3FGs) got into the act.
In the rare event of a Cav miss? No worries, since either one of Love or Tristan Thompson was there to grant their team extra chances to pelt the Hawks from afar. They were largely unimpeded by Al Horford, whose 11.8 D-Reb% for the series sat below that of Kent Bazemore (15.6%) Kyle Korver (11.8%) and even the lightly-used Kirk Hinrich.
No NBA team had ever sunk 15 three-pointers in four consecutive games… playoffs or otherwise. An NBA-record 25 triples in Game 2 was just part of a record 77 made threes for a four-game series sweep. That volume blew away the 4-game record (57 threes) the Cavs established in the prior series versus Detroit.
Cleveland has carried this identity into a new season that has them starting out at a perfect 6-0. Taking 40.1 percent of shot attempts beyond the 3-point arc, second only to Atlanta’s prior opponent (Houston’s 43.0% of FGAs), while hitting 38.5 3FG% (3rd in NBA), the Cavs’ offensive ideology is, thusly: if you must insist on driving inside to score (NBA-low 32.9% of points from shots in the paint), you had better come away with either points or drawn fouls.
Well, the Hawks (4-2) would like to believe it’s a new day in Believeland. Not the least of which because they’ve held opponents to a mediocre 33.8 3FG% (14th-lowest in NBA) thus far, and because they’ve got a rebounding stopgap in center Dwight Howard (27.6 D-Reb%, 14th in NBA among players w/ 20+ minutes per game) elevating Atlanta’s team D-Reb% from 25th in 2015-16 to 10th thus far this season.
Unlike Horford, Howard has been keeping opposing bigs honest around the other rim as well (NBA-high 18.9 O-Reb%, among players w/ 20+ minutes per game). While the Cavs have allowed 17.7 second-chance PPG (2nd-most in NBA), the Hawks have dwindled their number down to 10.3 per game (5th-fewest in NBA).
The Hawks will need to avoid falling for the fakeouts presented by James (Eastern Conference Player of the Week for two straight weeks) and Irving on drives. LeBron, in particular, has taken 8.8 drives per game this season, NBA-high among non-guards, but has converted just 40.0 FG% on drives where he shoots, resulting in just 4.0 PPG. James dished out passes on 41.5% of those drives, third-most among the 14 players (including Atlanta’s Dennis Schröder, 29.0% pass rate on 11.5 drives per game) who has driven toward the hoop more frequently.
Teamed with a more surehanded rebounder in the middle, Paul Millsap (2.3 SPG, 6th in NBA), Thabo Sefolosha (starting in place of Kyle Korver, who’s on paternity leave; 2.8 SPG, 2nd in NBA), and Kent Bazemore (2.0 SPG, 15th in NBA) can help roam the perimeter more aggressively. The active defense of rookie Taurean Prince, who moves up the depth chart in Korver’s absence, need not be slept on, either.
The challenge for the Hawks is not just contesting Cleveland’s three-point bombers, but picking off and disrupting the Cavs’ inside-out and cross-court passes before the ball arrives in opposing shooters’ hands. The Hawks’ 19.2 deflections per game ranks 2nd in the league thus far. Even with all the steals and deflections, Atlanta has smartly committed just 18.2 personal fouls per game (4th-fewest in NBA).
Thanks to the Hawks’ crafty forwards, Atlanta opponents have turned the ball over on an NBA-high 18.9 percent of possessions, leading to a league-high 23.7 PPG off their turnovers. If LeBron is trying to make highlight-reel plays running the full court, let them come while he’s transitioning to defense, and not the fastbreak (Cleveland’s 17.7 fastbreak PPG rank 5th in NBA).
Atlanta made wise decisions on the offensive end on Saturday night against Houston (season-best 52.9 FG%; 29 assists), not engaging in a tit-for-tat perimeter shootout with the Rockets (12-for-36 3FGs vs. ATL). While much better defense can be expected from the opposition tonight, similar principles apply.
James and Irving will have their high-volume touches and highlight-worthy plays, but it will be Atlanta’s job to keep the supporting cast from burying them in an avalanche of made perimeter shots. If the Hawks can do this well tonight, they’ll find some more Believers of their own in the house tomorrow night, against Chicago.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
