James, Cavaliers expect Hawks to be hungry, motivated
For a team that won a franchise-record 60 games last season, had the NBA coach of the year in Mike Budenholzer and placed four players on the AllStar team, the Atlanta Hawks are in a better place this postseason than they were a year ago.
Even though they won 12 fewer games and finished with the same record (48-34) as three other teams this season, they are healthier and entered the playoffs playing their best basketball of season. Last season they started 42-9 and perhaps peaked too soon.
In the final seven weeks of this season, the Hawks had a better winning percentage than the Cleveland Cavaliers, their Eastern Conference semifinals opponent, and had the best defensive rating, allowing 96.2 points per 100 possessions.
That’s why Cleveland star LeBron James is giving no thought to the Cavs’ sweep of the Hawks in last season’s conference finals or Cleveland’s eight victories in the last 11 games, including seven in a row, against Atlanta since James rejoined the Cavs.
“They’re still a well-coached, well-balanced group of guys,” James said. “They’re obviously going to be motivated by what happened last year, and we look forward to them playing their best basketball. It’s not for me to talk about the difference between last year. I can only focus on this year, and they’re a very good team.
“What happened in the past doesn’t define what happens today. We’ve got to focus on the now, and this is a team that’s coming off a very good and challenging first-round series against the Celtics. And we understand that their coach is going to have those guys well-prepared and well-driven for the series.”
The Cavaliers haven’t played since April 25, and the inevitable rest vs. rust is part of the conversation for Game 1 on Monday (7 p.m. ET, TNT).
“Very anxious,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “A lot of messing around. Not messing around, but you could tell we’ve been off for eight days and guys are ready to start playing and getting ready and getting focused for the game. It’s time, and we’re ready to play.”
But that story line will resolve itself fast in a seven-game series. The bigger story lines are the oncourt matchups. While Cleveland presents problems for Atlanta, the Cavs face challenges from the Hawks on offense and defense. And Lue gets another coaching challenge, from Stan Van Gundy in the first round to Budenholzer in this round.
Offensively, the Hawks love ball movement. They were No. 2 in assists per game (25.6), secondary assists (or hockey assists) per game (7.3) and assists created per game, according to Stats.nba .com. Budenholzer spent nearly two decades with the San Antonio Spurs, and passing up a good shot for a better shot is ingrained in the Hawks.
Forward Paul Millsap and center-forward Al Horford are versatile big men who can score, pass and spread the floor, and don’t let guard Kyle Korver’s 39.8% threepoint shooting this season fool you. He had a slow start, but he shot 43.4% on threes in the second half of the season.
Cleveland needs to play better team defense than it did against the Detroit Pistons, and Lue might change his rotation with more minutes for Channing Frye and Timofey Mozgov in this series.
“They’re a great cutting team,” Lue said. “Korver moves around a lot without the basketball; he’s very dangerous. And then their bigs — they can both shoot three, and they’re both good passers. So their ball movement and their offense is a big challenge for us.”
Budenholzer has put together a strong team defense built on high-quality individual defenders. The Pistons challenged the Cavs, but James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were outstanding in the four-game sweep.
Add J.R. Smith’s three-point shooting, and the Cavaliers scored at an efficient rate. But it will be more difficult against the Hawks. The Cavs need to be better on that end, too, and find more scoring help.
“One of my best strengths in the playoffs has been to make adjustments from game to game,” James said. “Obviously, I’m not quite sure how they’re going to play me in Game 1, but I’m able to make adjustments throughout the game, see how they’re playing me, and still be able to become effective.”