Atlanta Hawks: Hawks vs. Cavs Pre Game Report

4 and 0.

That’s the only thing that should be on the mind of the Atlanta Hawks as they travel to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers on Saturday night. That was the series tally in the Eastern Conference Finals last season as the Hawks saw LeBron James and the rest of the decimated Cavalier squad put an end to what was the most successful season in Hawks’ franchise history. With no Kyrie Irving and no Kevin Love, the Cavs swept the Hawks on their way to what would be LeBron James’ 5th straight NBA Finals appearance. The Cavs would go on to lose that series to Seth Curry and the Golden State Warriors but, for the Hawks, the damage was already done.

The Hawks were 3-1 against the Cavs last season but 0-4 when it counted. That sounds all too familiar to Atlanta sports fans as we’ve had to suffer through a seemingly endless number of those types of outcomes. Josh Broom, Editor of SDS, already opened up some of the wounds from last year’s playoff loss, most notably the way Matthew Dellavedova changed the entire series with his antics, so I won’t dive into those again. It will only make us (all Hawks fans) upset….again. Let’s focus on the future rather than the past because, let’s face it, there’s nothing we can do about it now and this is a better all around team on the court this season and a team that is looking to make its own mark on Atlanta sports history.

Tonight’s game will feature two teams who are dealing with injuries to key pieces of their respective rotations. Kyrie Irving, Timofey Mozgov, Mo Williams and Iman Shumpert will miss tonight’s game for the Cavs, while Kent Bazemore has already been ruled out for the Hawks with Jeff Teague’s status still up in the air at the time this piece is being written. So while this game won’t feature either team at full strength, it will be a measuring stick for both squads as these two teams are the class of the Eastern Conference, no matter what Charles Barkley says.

The Hawks are coming off of a big 103-97 win against the Kings on Wednesday night. I use the term big, not because of the team that the Hawks took down, but because it snapped the Hawks three game losing streak and saw both Dennis Schroder and Paul Millsap have two of their best games in a Hawks uniform. Paul “Batman” Millsap finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds while Dennis “Robin” Schroder chipped in with 22 points and 6 assists of his own. It was a coming out party of sorts for Schroder who had a poor shooting performance in a loss to the Nets on Tuesday in his first start for the injured Jeff Teague. A performance that included a terrible final possession where he couldn’t get the team into the right set which directly led to the loss.

The Cavs have had their own struggles lately as they’ve lost two of their last three. The team has been struggling defensively during that stretch giving up an average of 104 points per game. They are coming off a win against a hot and cold Bucks squad on Thursday night where Kevin Love, despite having some early foul trouble, absolutely dominated the Bucks front line. He has 22 points and 15 rebounds in one of his better all around performances of the season. Love has really started to find himself offensively this season with Mo Williams at the helm instead of Kyrie Irving. Love and James have formed a solid 1-2 punch for the Cavs but also leads to questions about how the group will perform once Irving recovers.

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Keys to the Game:

Defend the 3: There is a reason why the Cavs traded for Kevin Love. They gave the Timberwolves two #1 overall picks for the All-Star forward before last season which was a hefty price to pay,

Oct 7, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mo Williams (52) slides under the Atlanta Hawks guard Jeff Teague (0) during the first half at Cintas Center. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

even for one of the league’s elite players. The reason being is that he’s the type of big man that fits in perfectly with LeBron James. And, even though he struggled much of last season to “fit in” on offense, he seems to have found his way this season. He’s rebounding the ball at an extremely high rate again this season and is beginning to find his range from long distance again. He, J.R. Smith, James Jones and Dellavedova are all really good three point shooters and as we saw in last years’ playoff series, threes are a killer. Shumpert and Smith couldn’t miss against the Hawks in the playoffs and it was what ultimately did the team in. The Cavs know this and will be looking to do more of the same tonight. The Hawks need to make sure they don’t get sucked into double and triple teaming James which causes a lot of defensive rotations and, in theory, could lead to a lot of open shots from behind the arc. Let LeBron get his and shut down the role players. It is that simple.

Feed the ‘Bigs’: Without Mozgov, the Cavs are going to be a little thin on the front line. I expect Varejeo to get the start tonight and, in true matchup fashion, I expect the Hawks to counter with their “big” lineup and start Splitter. Thus, the Hawks should feed the ball to their bigs early and often as I like the combination of Splitter, Horford and Millsap over Varejeo, Love and James from an offensive standpoint for the Hawks. As SDS’s Andrew Snyder wrote on Friday, Millsap is on pace for the best season of his career. He’s becoming a force on both ends of the court and is doing a little bit of everything for this Hawks team. Al Horford has been his usual consistent self and Splitter has been a nice upgrade over Pero Antic this season. As good of an offensive player and rebounder that Kevin Love is, he has his struggles defending post ups so the Hawks should exploit that matchup as much as possible.

Projected Starting Lineups:

Atlanta Hawks

PG: Jeff Teague
SG: Kyle Korver
SF: Paul Millsap
PF: Al Horford
C: Tiago Splitter

Notes: According to reports, Kent Bazemore (ankle) will not play tonight against the Cavs and Jeff Teague (ankle) is questionable.

Cleveland Cavaliers

PG: Matthew Dellavedova
SG: J.R. Smith
SF: LeBron James
PF: Kevin Love
C: Anderson Varejeo

Notes: Kyrie Irving (knee), Iman Shumpert (wrist), Mo Williams (ankle) and Timofey Mozgov (shoulder) all will be out with injuries on Saturday night.

Other News & Notes:

Paul Millsap’s 16 rebounds against the Kings were a season high
Al Horford’s lone rebound against the Kings was his lowest total in 7 years
Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha look to be back to their normal allotted minutes after being limited for the first few weeks
LeBron James is currently 4th in the league in scoring at 27.2 points per game
Tonight’s game will be aired on Fox Sports South (TV) and 92.9 The Game (Radio)

Next: Paul Millsap On Pace For Career Year

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