Atlanta Hawks (52-29) Cleveland Cavaliers (61-20) Game Preview

Monday April 12, 2010

Atlanta Hawks (52-29) Cleveland Cavaliers (61-20)

Venue: Phillips Arena

Time: 8:00pm ET

TV: Fox Sports South

Radio: 790TheZone, NBA Audio League Pass

Previous Match Ups

12/29/2009 – Cavaliers 95 Hawks 84 – Recap

12/30/2009 – Cavaliers 106 Hawks 101 – Recap

04/02/2010 – Cavaliers 93 Hawks 88 – Recap

Hawks – Probable Starters

PG –

SG –

SF –

PF –

C –

Cavaliers – Probable Starters

PG –

SG –

SF –

PF –

C –

Injury Report

Hawks – Jamal Crawford – Toe (Day to Day), Jason Collins – Foot (Out)

Cavaliers – Daniel Gibson – Personal (Day to Day), Sebastian Telfair – Illness (Day to Day)

- Shaquille O’Neal – Thumb (Day to Day)

Hawks Blog Roll

Cavaliers Blog Roll

Cavs: The Blog

Fear the Sword

King James Gospel

Game Thoughts

Noticeably absent from this preview is the predicted starters because basically I have no idea. With both teams locked into their slots in the playoffs then both teams have the option of resting players tonight. Jamal Crawford I am sure is out and I would be shocked if Joe Johnson plays. Mike Bibby may have to for a little while but if there was ever a chance for Jeff Teague to log 35 plus minutes then this is it. On the Cavs side of things there was some rumbling that perhaps both LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal might play a little tonight. O’Neal I might believe because he has been out so long but I don’t see James suiting up tonight.

The competitor in me wants to win everything and I would site that 29 losses looks a lot better to me than 30 but even I must admit tonight that there are more important things ultimately than winning the season finale. There is however some meaningful basketball left. Reports abound on twitter that Miami is going to shut down Haslem, Wade, Beasley tonight against the Nets. If Miami loses and Milwaukee wins tonight against the Celtics then the Hawks would play Miami in the first round instead of the Bucks.

It seems that it was just yesterday that this season was starting and it is hard to believe that it comes to an end tonight. Should be a great post season and I can’t wait for them to get started.