Cavaliers vs Hawks: 5 Things From Game 1

great point about the bench. i never really thought about how the long rest would give the bench more playing time in practice. they did seem to step up their game compared to last series, and i was wondering how that was happening.

4. TNT’s coverage.

I am starting to get really sick of the screaming guitar blast that plays into commercial breaks. That music is awful.

My biggest beef with TNT is the lack of instant replay – it seems all too often they decide to ramble about some meaningless fact or show some worthless graphic instead of showing a play again. They do a good job of replaying the big, important highlights, but we’re going to see those in every recap anyways; let’s see some more little things like questionable foul calls that we didn’t see clearly enough to believe anything actually happened on…

I liked the hard foul that Wally dished out at the end of the game last night. Even more enjoyable is the fact that the scoreboard people seemed to like it to and did a closeup on Wally’s jersey and then his face after he laid the dude out. It got the crowd pretty fired up. I’m not sure if they referenced it or replayed it on TV but l loved seeing a good, hard playoff foul. I watched some videos today and I can tell you that the TV coverage of the MVP trophy ceremony did not do the noise level justice. Those in the building couldn’t even hear what Stern was saying and I was fine with that.

I’d like to put to shame Chuck Barkley’s brain-shot outburst at halftime, in which he barked out, “The Cavs are playing terrible!” or something to that effect. Chuckle’s evidence of the Cavs’ terrible play was the fact that LeBron had scored a lot of points and not made his typical number of assists. Boy, if scoring a lot of points for your team is not damning, I don’t know what is… kind of fills you with Chucky rage, rage, doesn’t it?

Caca-headed Chuck notwithstanding, Brian Windhorst of Yahoo! Sports criticized the Hawks’ approach and explained why LeBron had fewer assists in the first two periods than he usually does by halftime (quotation follows):

“In the first round against Dwyane Wade, the Hawks decided they weren’t going to junk up their defense to deal with the NBA’s leading scorer. They were going to play him one-on-one and have defenders take him in shifts to lessen the load. Then they would rely on the versatility of their defenders – the Hawks are one of the few teams that can switch on all pick-and-rolls because of their general athleticism and like-sized starters – and shot blockers Al Horford and Smith as the second line of defense.

Wade had his way for the most part, averaging 28.8 points, but the rest of the team couldn’t constantly support him. Especially when 3-pointers weren’t falling. The result was less than 90 points a game and ultimately a series win for the Hawks.

Atlanta appeared to bring the same idea to the table with James. But if containment was the goal it was a definite miss. Granted James has seen about every defense possible and has corresponding countermeasures that have varying track records. Making him take jumpers is the most prudent bet, though he’s a classic “pick-your-poison” player and nothing is fool proof.

But one thing that is clear on the scouting report is James cannot be allowed to turn the corner. When he’s moving at high speed with his size there is no stopping him unless Dwight Howard, Yao Ming or a young Shaquille O’Neal are protecting the rim. Even then, James is going to have his moment.

The reason is he can score with both hands because he’s naturally ambidextrous – he’s left-handed but plays basketball right-handed – so there is no advantage to forcing him one way or another. Once in Game 1 he soared over two back-pedaling Hawks and banked in a left-handed hook at full speed. And it wouldn’t have made his top 10 highlights on the night.

Yet time and time again, he turned that corner because the Hawks applied no double teams and gave him space coming off pick-and-rolls. So he would square his shoulders with the hoop and zip to the rim and finish with power, draw a foul or find a teammate. Only he didn’t have to look for teammates all that much because the pickings were so abundant.

Perhaps if Horford, who is dealing with a sprained ankle, was 100 percent it would be different. But James just bounded in between defenders, weaving his away through the lane like an experienced cab driver in rush hour. He didn’t have a single assist in the first half, which is rare considering he was ninth in the NBA in assists. He wasn’t hogging the ball, he just kept “taking what the defense gave him.”

Once, James didn’t even need a screen and put a spin move on poor Marvin Williams and waltzed to the basket with no one seriously getting in the way. (Me: that was the delicious three-point play that ended the third period and that prompted my comment about the stupid one-man defense. Someone did in fact get in the way, but only “seriously” enough to earn a foul for it.)

By the time the Hawks made adjustments and started having their big men step up to block James’ path coming off screens late in the third quarter it was too late. James’ teammates had awoken and he started feeding them. (Me: actually, the adjustments were not made consistently, as the previous paragraph shows.)”

Well, probably the longest quotation, in any case. Yeah, it appears he works for Yahoo! too.

Chuckle-head just let loose another whopper. When questioned as to why he did not place the Cavs among the elite teams in the NBA, he said, “everyone beats Detroit, everyone beats Atlanta.”

I guess Chuckle-head does not recall the last series Atlanta played.