A look inside Nike’s LeBron 13 Elite Experience
May 6, 2016Watch all 61 threes made by the Cavs versus Atlanta thus far (Video)
May 7, 2016Cleveland Cavaliers 121
Atlanta Hawks 108
[Box Score]
Cavaliers lead series 3-0
In a playoff series sweep, Game 3 is often the hardest game to win, particularly if the team up 2-0 is on the road. That difficulty is only magnified when you consider what happened in Game 2 of this series. Heading home after getting embarrassed, you had to think the Atlanta Hawks were going to regroup, galvanize, and come out and give the Cleveland Cavaliers their best shot.
The Hawks did just that, and for much of the third quarter and early in the fourth, it looked like maybe the Hawks were going to be able to keep the Cavaliers at bay. But Kyrie Irving was able to make some key baskets in the third quarter, and then when LeBron James returned to the floor in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers turned it on both on offense and defense to pull away and secure a huge Game 3 win by a 121-108 final.
https://vine.co/v/iQqExL1MAmi
Getting the Game 3 win is enormous. Not only does it keep the chances of a sweep alive, but it swings the entire feel of the whole series. If Atlanta wins Game 3, they feel like they are right back in the series. But by taking this game, the Cavaliers instead have asserted their full control on this series. The Hawks won’t give up for Game 4, that’s for sure, but you have to wonder what they have left in this series after losing a game that they felt in control of for much of the middle part of the contest.
For the Cavaliers, this was another insane three-point shooting game. Had the Cavaliers not made 25 three-pointers just two nights ago, their 21 in this game would have seemed even crazier. Or maybe this is the crazier stat because it comes in the game right after breaking the record. It’s hard to keep up with or even explain the three-point shooting the Cavaliers are pulling off right now. It’s part poor defensive strategy on Atlanta’s part, part excellent ball movement on Cleveland’s part, and just a dash of timely hot shooting. It all combines for an insane shooting performance in this series.
So with that in mind, lets dig deeper into some of these numbers.
- 61 – Through three games, the Cavaliers have now made 61 three-point shots. In the 2016 playoffs, the Cavaliers have made more three-pointers (118) than any other team. The next closest is actually the Atlanta Hawks, who have made 97. And the Hawks have played two more games than Cleveland has. The next closest team that has also played seven playoff games is the Golden State Warriors. They have made 77. That’s not a typo. In the same number of games, the Cavaliers have made 41 more three-pointers than the Golden State Warriors have this postseason. I don’t know how else to put this shooting streak into perspective. What the Cavaliers are doing right now is completely insane.
- 27 – When the Cavaliers traded Anderson Varejao for Channing Frye, I can admit I was a little underwhelmed. In this game, Frye made me eat my doubts. Frye came off the bench and delivered 27 points to lead the Cavaliers in scoring. Frye was 7 for 9 from three-point range. Frye was also active on the glass with seven rebounds and just in general seemed to make a big play whenever the Cavaliers needed one.
https://vine.co/v/iQqYiBgVpQE
- 18 to 6 – The Cavaliers had 18 offensive rebounds to just 6 for the Atlanta Hawks. Tristan Thompson led the way in this category with 9 offensive boards, with Kevin Love adding 4 of his own. Time and time again the Cavaliers were able to extend possessions thanks to a clutch offensive board. In fact, the Cavaliers outscored the Hawks 18 to 9 in second-chance points thanks to the efforts of Thompson and Love on the offensive glass. Overall the Cavaliers outrebounded the Hawks by a 55 to 28 margin. There’s no question Atlanta played with better energy and effort than they did in Games 1 and 2, but it wasn’t enough for them to keep Thompson and company off the glass. This was easily Atlanta’s worst rebounding performance of the series.
- +17 – With 7:41 left in the game, the Hawks were clinging to a four-point lead at 103-99. It was at this point that LeBron James returned to the game. From that point on, the Cavaliers outscored the Hawks 22-5, for a margin of +17. LeBron scored 10 of those 22 points. The Cavaliers held the Hawks to 16.7 percent shooting during that stretch with four turnovers. The Cavaliers made big play after big play on defense during that stretch, from Kyrie Irving hustling back to get a big steal from Jeff Teague to Kevin Love making a huge block on the baseline and then selling out to flip the ball back to a teammate to start a run the other way. The Cavaliers’ execution down the stretch in this game was nearly flawless.
https://vine.co/v/iQq2jW6DhKw
- 54.2% – We’ll end this with one area of concern for the Cavaliers. While it feels great to secure a huge win in Game 3 on the road, the Cavaliers still played pretty lousy defense for most of this game. The Hawks shot 54.2 percent up until that 7:41 mark when the Cavaliers finally buckled down. The Cavaliers’ help defense was especially bad. Atlanta outscored the Cavaliers 46 to 30 in the paint, primarily because far too often the Cavaliers were standing around staring at one another with their arms in the air as the Hawks executed a nice pass for an easy layup. The Cavaliers were letting the Hawks get into their offensive sets far too easily in this game, and Atlanta was making them pay time and time again. It’s great that Cleveland could get stops down the stretch in crunch time, but I still am not crazy with how frequently this team’s defensive effort wanes from moment to moment inside games.
The Cavaliers will now try to complete the sweep on Sunday in Atlanta. The Cavaliers are 7-0 in the playoffs and they have won seven straight playoff games against the Hawks. It’s clear by now that Atlanta simply does not match up well with Cleveland in a postseason situation, but that doesn’t mean the Hawks are going to give up without a fight. I expect the Hawks to come back with everything they have for Game 4 on Sunday. The question is whether it will be enough, or if it will simply be too little too late once more.
14 Comments
61 – “Through three games, the Cavaliers have now made 61 three-point shots. In the 2016 playoffs, the Cavaliers have made more three-pointers (118) than any other team. The next closest is actually the Atlanta Hawks, who have made 97. And the Hawks have played two fewer games than Cleveland has. The next closest team that has also played seven playoff games is the Golden State Warriors. They have made 77. That’s not a typo. In the same number of games, the Cavaliers have made 41 more three-pointers than the Golden State Warriors have this postseason. I don’t know how else to put this shooting streak into perspective. What the Cavaliers are doing right now is completely insane.”
Um, question: how is it possible the Hawks played 2 fewer games than the Cavs? The Cavs swept their first series; did the Hawks win their first series in 2 games?
Thank you, the typo has been corrected.
lol ohhh I see. I wasn’t trying to be snarky in the response, I genuinely had no idea what the statement was going for.
No worries.
This is incredible to watch.
Officiating was getting old in game 2, almost ruined this game again. 2 Milsap flops for offensive foul calls on love, 1 Bazemore flop on Lebron, and 1 obvious charge turned ‘I need to call my mom’ moment for Horford.
NBA needs to clean up this trash ASAP. Instead of doing this formal 2 minute report, they should review the whole game and give the refs a grade for each game. Highest graded refs stick around in the post season. Bigger problem in my eyes than the hack a so-and-so problem.
Loved the way this team bounced back from all the turnovers and poor perimeter defense to make it 3-0 in the series. JR Smith’s defensive effort down the stretch impressed me. He even said after the game how he couldn’t let not touching the ball much on offense effect his defense.
Finish this!
http://i.imgur.com/BDibAuO.jpg
Horford’s dunk I mean charge on Love was ridiculous but what do you expect from a crew that had both Tony Brothers and Danny Crawford on it. If you have watched the playoffs one of them is usually on a crew that botches or has something “unique” occur in the game.
But I loved how the Cavaliers fought through it. I felt before and during the game that despite the Cavaliers sloppy play that if they could keep it close they’d be able to hit the turbo button and blow past the soft Hawks. I also loved Teague’s soft cheap shot. You know if that had been JR Smith or Delly they probably would have gotten a flagrant 2 or something.
And lets talk about Channing Deep Frye. Last night more then paid dividends for the trade. I read somewhere on Twitter that people were supposedly upset by the trade for him. Huh? Why? Maybe Lue found another lineup. KI, LBJ, Love, Frye and TT. LBJ in the middle flanked by snipers with the junkyard dog in the middle.
The biggest officiating problem for me is this: If J.R.’s inadvertant swipe on Millsap deserves a flagrant 1, then Teague’s very intentional shove on LeBron deserves a flagrant 2.
They do. They only release the last 2 minutes to the public, but they do the review for each game and have for a long time. The only change was making the last two minutes of the reports public.
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Didn’t know they did a full review, interesting!
A small part of me wants a loss just to test our bounce back before a potential Eastern Conference Final and Finals run, but the risk of injury with these guys is too real. I think Kevin Love’s limbs could fall off at any second the way he seems to hobble through games.
Toronto lost Jonas for their series against Heat and Whiteside was lost for Miami in same game. Lets sweep the Hawks and have the rest before the ECF be the biggest problem.