Cleveland, Cleveland

[Hawksquawk]

Greetings, all-

What to make of Tuesday night?

Jamal Crawford’s take: “We had a rough stretch scoring the ball and that hasn’t been the case all year. We look at it as a fluke, laying an egg, and hopefully come out tomorrow and get a win.”

I don’t know if I entirely agree with him, but I don’t think he’s so far off. I don’t know what happened in the fourth quarter. Crawford said that pressure built with each failed possession. Al Horford said that Cleveland defended the transition differently and caught the Hawks by surprise. After a sizzling start, Joe Johnson might have been as ineffective as I’ve seen him. Obviously, Cleveland had something to do with it. The Cavs are one of the best defensive teams in the league – first in points in the paint allowed, second in defensive field goal percentage and fourth in points allowed per game. Earlier this season, they held Milwaukee scoreless for more than 11 minutes.

Mike Brown, before Tuesday’s game: “Guys are doing a nice job …

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[spotatl]

As a coach the way I'd attack cleveland is to attack Mo Williams. take their PF and Centers off the dribble. And to have a SF that can occupy Lebron so he can't help on defense and has to use extra energy in that area. The problme is that Bibby cannot exploit Mo WIlliams. Josh Smith and Horford are lousy at exploiting slow defenders in the halfcourt. And Marvin doesn't do anything to make Lebron work. The Hawks don't have great options because they don't really have the roster to exploit the weaknesses on the Cavs defense.