Keys beating Cavs next series -Rematch last year playoffs-

[Atlantaholic]

11 hours ago, benhillboy said:

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.

I agree with this. Sick Thabo on his ass and just let him do what he can scoring wise. Lebron is at his most dangerous when he is distributing the ball and getting his teammates involved. 

[Atlantaholic]

9 hours ago, BackForThe2ndTime said:

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? 

They played better down the stretch than this years team? Last year's Cleveland team was 20-7 post all star break compared to 19-11 this year... 

Honestly though, they are probably just as good if not better than last year.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Atlantaholic

[Trout7]

I think the Hawks will get their opportunities with Bud's game plans, but i think their downfall will be their overall poor shooting. They get hot in streaks sometimes but it just seems like we have been waiting all year for the shooting to get consistent and it just hasn't.  I really think this team would have a high ceiling if it could just make some more of their open shots but i don't think our offense is going to catch up anywhere near our defense.   I don't think you can realistically at this point hope for the shooting to get better. 

Quote

Quote

 

 

 

[Spursfanpeacemaker]

9 hours ago, Trout7 said:

I think the Hawks will get their opportunities with Bud's game plans, but i think their downfall will be their overall poor shooting. They get hot in streaks sometimes but it just seems like we have been waiting all year for the shooting to get consistent and it just hasn't.  I really think this team would have a high ceiling if it could just make some more of their open shots but i don't think our offense is going to catch up anywhere near our defense.   I don't think you can realistically at this point hope for the shooting to get better. 

 

I agree, Hawks are not golden state warriors that can get 3s whenever they want to.. Hawks need to attack the paint, if there's an open 3pt just take it

[Lurker]

Here's a few more thoughts:

1. Jeff Teague has to play his best two way playoff series as a pro. He has to be the #1 option offensively and needs to at least slow Irving down.

2. This needs to be the series that Dennis Schröder puts it together. He's gotten better in each series he's gotten a lot of playing time, but is still prone to ugly clunkers like game 4. For all that has been said about him, he actually has been decent to pretty good in 4 of 6 games so far THIS YEAR.

3. The defensive scheme I want to see is man to man and sagging off of James (and Shumpert when he's in). When he wants to post up, we're going to find out quickly that Bazemore can't be on him though.

4. I'm more worried about taking Kyrie Irving out of things offensively than what LeBron James does. I think it's possible but tough.

5. Put Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in a lot of pick and rolls and otherwise offensively look to push as much as possible.

#4 is most important, the games Irving shoots poorly IF he does will be surprisingly close to outsiders and available for Atlanta to steal. If he doesn't though, then I'm very afraid of what this whole series looks like...

Edited May 1, 2016 by Lurker

[Dexmethylphenidate]

On 4/29/2016 at 11:53 AM, Peoriabird said:

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.

Rebounding is definitely one of the top focus if not the biggest. If the Hawks are close +/- 5 in rebounding, then it will be a good series.

[rd79]

On 29.4.2016 at 0:09 AM, JayBirdHawk said:

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!!! 

That would be a 6 game series, but I'll take it.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Go BIG.

Millsap needs to guard Lebron in certain situations, to force him to take jumpers.  If he drives, have multiple bigs waiting for him in the lane ( Horford & Humphries ).

Tavares needs to dress this entire series, not Patterson.  Toss him in the game for a few minutes, just to see how the Cavs will respond.

If the Cavs go small, and Love is at the 5 and Lebron at the 4, Millsap will end up on Lebron anyway.

Rebounding will be of most importance in this series.  Honestly, we haven't consistently knocked down shots all year.  We must be able to get 2nd chance points, while limiting their 2nd chance opportunities.

Overall though, we just need our main rotation guys to be solid.  They don't have to be great every night.  But they can't be horrible either.

[Alex]

I think part of a key to beating Cleveand is what Detroit did early on in that series.  Play them tough, but at the same time you need to play loose.  Cleveland won that series because of their talent.  They didn't outwork or compete any better than Detroit did.  The Pistons weren't afraid of Cleveland like the Hawks seem to be.  I actually think the Hawks can fare alright this time around.  Take that gritty mentaltity that Detroit used along with the playoff experience the Hawks have and I think we can make this an actual series this time around.

[Peoriabird]

2 hours ago, Alex said:

2 hours ago, Alex said:

Cleveland won that series because of their talent. 

 

Cleveland won that series because Detroit's point guards suck! 

[Lurker]

4 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

Cleveland won that series because Detroit's point guards suck!

Reggie Jackson is a horrible defender and Steve Blake is horrible all around. But IIRC I think KCP was supposed to be defending Irving more than Jackson. Did he? Because if he did, an excellent defender did a poor job.

If the Hawks simply get out-talented in this series, I won't complain much. I will if I can point out problems in the game plan, poor effort, or simply playing scared. There's already been word that the game plan on defense will be different so we'll see what it is.

[macdaddy]

Last year in the regular season we were pretty successful doubling Lebron as soon as he got the ball.    I still think we force it out of his hands every chance we get, create some turnovers.   If we're single covering him then don't play up on him for crying out loud.     And we really just have to hope we can knock down open threes and have a lot of off the ball movement to create easy scores at the rim.   But if we aren't knocking down 3s then we've got problems. 

[AHF]

I want us single covering Lebron most of the time and giving him space to invite jumpers and deter drives.  Josh Smith sort of defense thinking (except that Lebron is much more league average shooting jumpers).

[Jody23]

The official Hawks youtube account posted these videos.

 

 

[Guest]

There is no one way to guard LeBron, you just have to mix it up and keep him guessing, don't let him get comfortable.  Keep him thinking.

 

[RedDawg#8]

In those videos it looked more like missed open jumpshots than good defense but it's cool 

I think if we are gonna run out our usual starters we have to play an aggressive matchup 3-2 zone.  Funnel Lebron and Kyrie into our bigs who are doing a great job protecting the rim. Let Baze patrol the top against whoever the primary ball handler is and sit Teague and Kyle on the wings to contest the shooters. Rotate the bigs heavy to prevent foul trouble so let's see a lot of Hump, Moose and a little Edy every now and then. Keep Baze and/Thabo on the ball handlers which will almost always be Bron and Kyrie. And if we do ever decide to run man for the love of God don't switch the pick and rolls especially early in the clock. Don't make it easy on then by having Al and Sap stuck on an island on the perimeter and Jeff down low on their bigs. Be aggressive against the moving screens and get back to your man no matter what. 

[Peoriabird]

25 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

 Let Baze patrol the top against whoever the primary ball handler is and sit Teague and Kyle on the wings to contest the shooters.

You might have something here RedDawg!  But you are expecting too much from Bud I'm afraid.

[Guest]

Y'all want Kyle closing on shooters?  Have you seen Kyle "closing on shooters" before?  It's much less closing and much more running into guys giving them 4pt plays.

If you put Baze out on their ballhandlers you're basically ensuring 2 quick fouls and more of Thabo than we need to see.  Seriously, Baze isn't a good defender.  He's just really active which works at times.

We just need to face facts here, LeiBorn is going to desmolish us from minute 1.  He'll be Dirk O'neal out there.  We are but a fly on his windshield tonite.  Buckle up.

[Lurker]

1 hour ago, RedDawg#8 said:

In those videos it looked more like missed open jumpshots than good defense but it's cool

I'll live with Kyrie taking 10 long twos. If he hits them all you can do is tip your hat. Where he's most dangerous at is going to the basket and making threes.

There is one mistake in here though and it's a good three point shooter in Frye having a wide open three pointer.

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Y'all want Kyle closing on shooters?  Have you seen Kyle "closing on shooters" before?  It's much less closing and much more running into guys giving them 4pt plays.

If you put Baze out on their ballhandlers you're basically ensuring 2 quick fouls and more of Thabo than we need to see.  Seriously, Baze isn't a good defender.  He's just really active which works at times.

We just need to face facts here, LeiBorn is going to desmolish us from minute 1.  He'll be Dirk O'neal out there.  We are but a fly on his windshield tonite.  Buckle up.

Exactly  we aren't  starting a series  with a new defesive philosophy. You adjust and tweak as the games are played.