Keys beating Cavs next series -Rematch last year playoffs-

[Spursfanpeacemaker]

Last year Delladenova Diver dived into Kyle Korver ankles, and Korver was out for the playoffs and had surgery... I respect Delladiver for his game, but i still hate him for doing that to Korver.. 

DMC is not here anymore, but Thabo now is here,  and Hawks are different team compared to last year.

Cavs have three superstars, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and Lebron James

What do you guys think are they keys for the hawks beating Cleveland next series?

My Keys;

1. Defense

2.  Playing collectively, and playing for each other,  because Hawks dont have a superstar player like Lebron

3.  Competing, play hard, and giving their best, even Cavs are favored to win the series

[BigDog90]

1 hour ago, Spursfanpeacemaker said:

Last year Delladenova Diver dived into Kyle Korver ankles, and Korver was out for the playoffs and had surgery... I respect Delladiver for his game, but i still hate him for doing that to Korver.. 

DMC is not here anymore, but Thabo now is here,  and Hawks are different team compared to last year.

Cavs have three superstars, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and Lebron James

What do you guys think are they keys for the hawks beating Cleveland next series?

My Keys;

1. Defense

2.  Playing collectively, and playing for each other,  because Hawks dont have a superstar player like Lebron

3.  Competing, play hard, and giving their best, even Cavs are favored to win the series

I believe Al is the x-factor.  Cavs don't have anybody with the same skillset as Al. He was killing them last year in game 3 of the ECF. He's going to need to bring it like that the whole series. Since he extended his range this season, Hawks need to take advantage of that with Teague, Dennis, Thabo and Baze getting into the paint. 

Millsap > Love. Millsap needs to dominate Love. 

At the end of the day, Teague is the QB of the team and he owns Kyrie one on one and he needs to block whatever mental issues he has and just own him so bad that it takes LeBron to guard him one on one to stop him. Therefore, giving the Cavs nightmares as they got to respect Horford's range and slow down Teague.

[benhillboy]

1. Don't double LeBron.  Just live with him getting whatever he can get versus different individual looks from everybody with a laser focus on drawing offensive fouls out of him.

Not allowing JR, Kyrie, and Love to get involved offensively will definately carry over to their defense and attitude.  You can't leave either one of them because they're all the same caliber of three point shooter: great ones.  

2. Our PG duo is better, point blank.  They have to limit the unforced errors and play like it.

3. Keep Thompson big stupid-looking ass off the offensive glass, duh.

4. Sap must attack Love relentlessly.

5. Pray that the threes fall in bunches and the referress keep the fuc@ery to a minimum.

Edited April 29, 2016 by benhillboy

[Diesel]

5 hours ago, benhillboy said:

1. Don't double LeBron.  Just live with him getting whatever he can get versus different individual looks from everybody with a laser focus on drawing offensive fouls out of him.

Not allowing JR, Kyrie, and Love to get involved offensively will definately carry over to their defense and attitude.  You can't leave either one of them because they're all the same caliber of three point shooter: great ones.  

2. Our PG duo is better, point blank.  They have to limit the unforced errors and play like it.

3. Keep Thompson big stupid-looking ass off the offensive glass, duh.

4. Sap must attack Love relentlessly.

5. Pray that the threes fall in bunches and the referress keep the fuc@ery to a minimum.

BHB... 

I think your first statement should be made into a banner and placed on every Hawks twitter page, in the lockerroom, and on the Bus.  Don't double Lebron.  Let the matchup do what it do.  When Lebron comes through the paint, close the paint down.  And look for the offensive fouls.   We may not get one, but afterwhile, it will be hard to miss the fact that the league is playing favorites with Lebron. 

The thing we need to work on is offensive production.  IF we can score on Cleveland the way we scored on Boston in games 5,6.. I think we will frustrate Lebron.  They are still ready to implode and now it's our turn to make them implode. 

We can't allow JR Smith to get off.  He's the streak shooter that worries me.  IF he doesn't have a good game shooting, then they will be forced to try Lebron from outside.  IF Lebron is outside trying to win games, then we've done our job... whether he hits or not.

 

 

[AUhawksfan]

6 hours ago, benhillboy said:

1. Don't double LeBron.  Just live with him getting whatever he can get versus different individual looks from everybody with a laser focus on drawing offensive fouls out of him.

Not allowing JR, Kyrie, and Love to get involved offensively will definately carry over to their defense and attitude.  You can't leave either one of them because they're all the same caliber of three point shooter: great ones.  

2. Our PG duo is better, point blank.  They have to limit the unforced errors and play like it.

3. Keep Thompson big stupid-looking ass off the offensive glass, duh.

4. Sap must attack Love relentlessly.

5. Pray that the threes fall in bunches and the referress keep the fuc@ery to a minimum.

All of this.  I still have nightmares of that game when JR went off, don't leave him!  We can easily limit their outside shooting by not doubling as you said.

The only other thing that made me worried last year too was Thompson on the glass.  Millsap and Horford will have to continue to be beasts down low on defense.  Give Humphries the minutes Moose was taking last series too.

[Guest]

Teague and Al are the keys.  Can't look up mid-3rd thinking, "D*mn, Al ain't done sh*t tonite".  Can't be mid-1st qtr thinking, "Ah, man Jeff's headed back to the lockeroom for his nightly ankle-ectomy."

Al has to dominate.  Stop laughing ...  stop. laughing.  We need Al to force them to sit emoLove because he can't handle Horford.  That'll allow us to have a schematic advantage.  We won't out-talent them.

Now that I think about it, we need Budz to absolutely dwarf the Calfs "coach" here.  Just flat out make him look silly (to the extent that a coach can).  Quiet as it's kept, Saint Stevens wasn't able to respond to Budz' adjustment after game 3.

[Peoriabird]

Here is my 2 cents

1st of all, Love ain't no superstar and neither is Kyrie Irving.  So they can be shut down!

Paul Millsap cannot allow Love to abuse him like Marcus Morris/Tabias Harris did in the Detroit series

Keep Kyrie out of the paint...If he beats you from the outside then tip your hat.

Stay connected to JR Smith and Shumpert.

Stay away from funky line ups Bud!  Like 2 point guard line ups or line ups with no big men rebounders or Korver @ the 3 guarding Lebron.

Dennis has to stop killing the offense with those ill advised early shot clock long difficult shots

THjr should get more minutes and he should stop settling for long jumpers..Take it to the rack young fella!

Scott should get more minutes and not just @ the 4 and certainly not with Millsap and Korver in the front court with him.

Humphries should get minutes in this series

Bud will have to out coach an opposing coach for a change

 

[Dejay]

1 hour ago, Diesel said:

BHB... 

I think your first statement should be made into a banner and placed on every Hawks twitter page, in the lockerroom, and on the Bus.  Don't double Lebron.  Let the matchup do what it do.  When Lebron comes through the paint, close the paint down.  And look for the offensive fouls.   We may not get one, but afterwhile, it will be hard to miss the fact that the league is playing favorites with Lebron. 

The thing we need to work on is offensive production.  IF we can score on Cleveland the way we scored on Boston in games 5,6.. I think we will frustrate Lebron.  They are still ready to implode and now it's our turn to make them implode. 

We can't allow JR Smith to get off.  He's the streak shooter that worries me.  IF he doesn't have a good game shooting, then they will be forced to try Lebron from outside.  IF Lebron is outside trying to win games, then we've done our job... whether he hits or not.

 

 

I don't even think that's enough, D. That post should be printed and taped up on nightstands in their hotel rooms, on the steering wheels of their cars, in their pantries, kitchen cabinets, bathroom faucets, and to the remote controls of their flatscreens.

DO NOT DOUBLE LEBRON JAMES. Don't even think about it. Don't even get it into your spirit. I don't care if effin Mike Muscala is stuck playing him out on the perimeter while down two with 4.6 ticks on the game clock. Don't you dare send another guy his way to help out, Bud. As we painfully found out last year, the key isn't limiting him because you just can't; last I checked, Kawhi Leonard isn't on this roster. The key is limiting the OTHER guys on the floor playing with him. If he goes for 28 a night, God bless him, especially if he has to chuck up 30+ shots a night to get there. The key is not allowing J.R. Smith, Kyrie, Love, and effin Tristan Thompson to join in on the fun. Those guys must be held in check or this will be a very short series. 

Rebounding will also be a factor. They made Tristan Thompson look like Buck Williams in his heyday in last year's ECF. That simply must not happen again. As little as he was used in the Celtics series, I think Kris Humphreys will get some burn here because they will need everyone hitting the boards to keep the Cavs from getting second and third chance shots at the rim and open three point attempts.

Point guard dominance. It isn't enough for Teague and Schoeder to just win the matchup with Kyrie and Delladova. They must DOMINATE this matchup to the point where it becomes painful for Cavs fans to watch. It has to get to where Lue is forced to either look at bringing in someone else to help or switch them out with Lebron in order to slow them down (and hopefully tiring him out down the stretch).

Post play dominance. Millsap and Horford must have thine own way with Love and Thompson in the post. They must use their quickness, range, and versatility in order to get them into foul trouble and/or force the Cavs to help. Which leads me to my biggest point, which is...

HIT THE OPEN SHOTS. Contrary to opinion, this is the major reason as to why the Hawks finished 48-34 and not 56-26. It is also the reason why the Celtics had a four-day stay of execution before getting the volts (see what I did there?) put through them last night. Very few on this board (especially me) anticipated that they would shoot so poorly in games as they have. But yet, here we are. They are getting good looks on virtually every trip down the floor but are not making teams pay for it as they did over a year ago when they smoked everyone outside of the Spurs. When they are on offensively and connecting on their looks, they are capable of staying with anyone. But when they're not, well, see the Knicks games, Magic games, Wolves games, Jazz game, Heat games, Pacer games, Suns game, Kings game, et al during the regular season.  Simply put, they CANNOT afford any 12-2 or 22-6 runs to be had on them in this series as they allowed against Boston. They must return fire when the Cavs start hulking up or again, this won't last long.

If they do these things, along with keeping the turnovers to a minimum, they have a chance to make things VERY uncomfortable for the Lebrons in this series. And the longer this series goes, the more heat will be put on them to put the 'mediocre' Hawks away and get rest before the next round. That heat will not only be coming from their fans and most of the country but ABC, ESPN, and TNT as well (you think they want to carry a Hawks vs. Raptors/Pacers/Hornets ECFs in prime time?). Last year, they were all but high-fiving each other on Sportscenter after the Hawks were done in. Let's see the looks on their faces if they somehow manage to return the favor....

Edited April 29, 2016 by Dejay

[Guest]

I think the main key is to go at Love in the defensive end. He is a horrible defender and we need to expose him on that end. Also, make Love drive to the hole and don't let him have wide open looks from deep.

[benhillboy]

Each blown layup will take a month off my life.  Jeff, Baze, and Sap, please don't.

Bud is granted in thinking he's smarter than everyone else, but the message needs to get through to him from the fans and media these next 3 days.   

Al has to enlighten him how the two-year playoff plan worked versus Orlando back in the day.  In 2010, Dwight was only an average post passer, yet Woody's doubling led us to playoff embarrassment of epic proportions.  

What did Drew do in '11?  Let Dwight beast on Collins while "the others" were cold and it was the smoothest series win of Al and Jeff's career.  LeBron can average 50, I don't give a damn.  With the others uninvolved there's no way they score 45 on our straight jacket defense or hold our assist-based attack under 100.

Out of all the LeBron sack-chasers I can accept McMannamin or whatever his name is.  He had a good preview of the matchup and gave the Hawks props for having a better complexion from last year's debacle.  7 boards from Baze this postseason and 9 and 4 from Scott has to continue.  I didn't even realize Scott was limited in last year's series.  Hell, it seemed like everyone was.

Edited April 29, 2016 by benhillboy

[Lurker]

Let me repeat what I said a few days ago: If playoff games where you're not the better team means you still have a normal rotation without minutes increased too much, than what are we all doing here? Its not the main issue here but from what I can tell from some Cleveland games I watched, rotations are really going to have to be changed.

I think LBJ comes in at the start of 2nd and 4th quarters now, and Atlanta needs to counter with at least two of their best starters in.

In reality, I don't feel good about this series at all and would feel better if someone in an off guard role could average 18-20 a night (that could be Bazemore but he's too erratic).

It's almost a 95% guarantee that Tristan Thompson actually starts on Paul Millsap which means Al Horford needs to take advantage of Kevin Love on offense and have his best playoff series ever. Jeff Teague and Dennis Schröder need to combine to average 34 and 11.

As I said elsewhere I'm not too worried about what James does but you need to figure out a way to take Irving out of the game, either by outscoring him or by forcing him into shooting a poor %.

[HawkItus]

HawkItus keys to the game....

 

Making our open shots.  If we shoot 49+ from 2 and 33+ from 3, we will really push them.   Got to hit the open shots.

Also protect the ball.  No 5 turnovers in 3 minutes stretches.  

Make Lebron, Love, Kyrie work.  Go at them on offense.  Don't let them rest on the defensive end and be fresh on the offensive side.

[BackForThe2ndTime]

Contain Kyrie 

He's the guy that has looked most improved in these playoffs. He's been balling and stroking it from three with ease. Sure LeBron will get his, but we can't let Kyrie go off at the same time. 

Limit Open Shots

We have some serious muscle memory to break after the Celtics serious. This goes with not doubling LeBron (assuming that's the game plan), but it's  also just about not being sloppy on the defense end because the Cavs will make you pay. 

Punish Love

He's one of the biggest liabilities on defense and we have the players to take advantage of that.  It also has the added plus of tiring Love and hopefully getting into his head as someone else mentioned. 

Run the Offense 

We can't go through stretches where this team plays a ton of one on one.  This is mostly about Schröder,  as this tends to happen when he comes in.  He has to keep his cool and lead this second team,  as Dellalella has added a little more than diving at knees to his repertoire this year.  He could be the X factor. I would like to say Horford, but it's hard to call an Allstar an X factor. He just needs to step up. 

Make Shots 

It's simple.  This is a make or miss league. We have to shoot well to take down the Cavs.  We won't get the luxury of those horrible shooting droughts that the Celtics went through. 

 

[Peoriabird]

Listen guys...If the Hawks make their open shots and not turn the ball over, no one can beat them...they would sweep the Cavs in this series if that were the case!  But being a realist, The Hawks aren't that good on offense and should focus on defense and rebounding like they did in the Celtic series.  Al did a great job against Thompson in the last regular season game so that's a positive.  Everyone will have to help rebound and if they can out-rebound the Cavs, the Hawks will win the series.

[DS17Fanboy]

I think this not being conference finals and us not being as feared as last year is a good thing. CLE really peaked in last years series. They went into that with a finals mentality.

[High5]

We can't let Thompson look like Wilt again. And we can't get blown out on the 3pt line. If LeBron scores 40 then so be it, but if he's allowed to constantly hit wide open shooters behind the 3pt line then we're done. The Cavs aren't the Celtics. Sap/Horford need to punish Love every chance they get. Teague needs to hang with Irving. The odds clearly aren't in our favor, but at least we don't have any pressure on us. Everyone expects us to get crushed this time. 

[Peoriabird]

4 minutes ago, High5 said:

 Everyone expects us to get crushed this time. 

Not me, I don't think the Cavs are a dominate team like the Spurs.

[BackForThe2ndTime]

Where is this idea that last year's Cavs are better than this year's team?  I know that would make the task in front of us seem easier, but I'm not seeing it. And please don't quote any stats from last year.  I'm not even sure if that would help or hurt my argument.

It just seems irrelevant because this team has another year of meshing,  a healthy Kyrie and Love for the playoffs, and I could easily argue that the team (or maybe just Lebron) is turning it up a notch.  How the hell is last year's team better? 

[RedDawg#8]

The biggest key to piggyback off of what most of your are saying, is to not focus on Lebron, but I will take it a step further and say not to focus on their Big 3 either. The Cavs have a very talented starting 5, and role players who are just playing well together right now. Its time to forget about the names on their jerseys when watching tape. Let the media stroke their top guys all weekend.  The Cavs as a team play good basketball. There is a reason why they have easily beat us our last 7 tries even when missing key players.

Problem area #1 is that they kill us with ball screens, every team does, and they know it. They didn't screen as much against the Pistons but when they watch our tape they know that Jeff will get hung up on the screener and force the defense to scramble. Our Starting unit is NOT built to switch against the Cavs. Kyle cant guard a single player on the wing for them outside of Shumpert maybe. Jeff CAN stick Kyrie 1 on 1 but not when they are hammering him with screens. Kent is limited against Bron, Paul and Al can both win their matchups defensively but the second they leave the paint to help Kyle, Jeff, and/or Kent, we will be left stranded on the glass against their big men rotation.

SOLUTION

Thabo needs to be on the floor more against Lebron. I don't care if it means start him or not.  He plays decent minutes but his minutes cannot come against their second unit. They need to come while 23 is on the floor or else its no diferent than not having him at all last year. He needs to be on the floor 30 mins against Lebron, and let Kent and Paul figure out the other 15 minutes and NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

Also, we may need to ditch the idea of this overload man defense that leaves shooters open on the weakside because the Cavs will make skip passes over the top all game and force us to scramble which throws our concept out of whack. We may need to go with some zone concepts like a box plus 1. Or any zone that  leaves our bigs in the paint instead of coming out to switch on the wing against their screens. Al and Paul owned the rim area against the C's and it was a thing of beauty. If they could do that against Cleland we might have more than a chance. Let Lebron and Kyrie see a wall of red in the paint. Don't let them abuse Jeffs weakness against screens and switch Al on to Kyrie at the 3 point line. Sit back and let them take long contested 3s all game, force them to make Love and Thompson score in the post.

[Guest]

I don't  have much to add, most points have been covered by you Squawkers.

I'll  look at it from this perspective:

1. Last year we limped into the playoffs and by the time we got to the ECF we were dragging, the 2 major ones were Millsaps shoulder  and no Thabo - both are back and healthy. We are playing better going into the playoffs this time around than last year.

2.  It's  true we don't  have DMC this time around but we didn't have him for much of the Cavs series wirh his bum knee. 

3. Forcing Bazemore into a starting role  he wasn't  ready for after Kyle  went down was a disaster. He is more prepared this go round.

4. We are relatively healthy compared to last year plus the added defense and rebounding of Thabo. Anything offensively  is a bonus.

5. Dennis is in year 2 of his playoff experience. After battling IT he should  be able to handle  Dirty.

6. Closing out Boston on the road  in that raucous environment with a whoop ass should be a confidence builder.

7. There are no expectations so they can play foot  loose and fancy free. The Hawks don't  handle expectations  well. When there is none they play well.

8. This feels like the 2008 Boston series - everyone and they momma calling for a sweep and we took them to 7.  I'm  calling a 7  game series.

9.  Bud over Lue....eeerr LeBron

10.  Hawks in 7!!! Here's  how - we steal G1 in Cleveland (they've  had a long layoff), then win all our home games.  Yep, that's  what my magic 8 ball says.

Let's  get it HAWKS!!!