National Basketball Association

Hawks vs. Cavaliers: How the regular season went

Published May. 20, 2015 11:34 a.m. ET

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By Miles Wray

On Tuesday, I looked at how the Rockets and Warriors matched up against one another this regular season, with the caveat that regular season performance carries over only so much into the postseason, even in the case a dominant performance like Golden State’s 4–0 regular season sweep of Houston. The same caveat applies as we look to the Eastern Conference Finals, featuring the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Hawks won the regular season series, 3–1, but with one of those games taking place in November, and two in December, those games took place before both the Hawks established their dominant rhythm and also before the Cavaliers assumed their presently dominant identity by trading for Timofey Mozgov. The Hawks did win the matchup that took place in early March. Here’s some of what happened during those games:

Atlanta Role Players Thrived

This year, Shelvin Mack lost his role as Hawks’ backup guard to Dennis Schröder—but Mack also turned in a career-high 24 points against the Cavaliers this December.

With a combination of Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, and Matthew Dellavedova guarding him, Mack was able to cut open for three-point shots before, later in the game, cutting through the lane past over-compensating guards. Mack has played only sparingly in the playoffs, but perhaps the Cavaliers’ weak defensive guards will allow him—or more likely Schröder—a chance at a big game.

Another member of the Hawks’ bench who thrived against the Cavaliers was Mike Scott, who averaged 11.5 points in his four games against Cleveland, compared to his season average of 7.8 points per game. Between Mozgov, Tristan Thompson, and James Jones, the Cavaliers don’t have a lot of obvious defensive answers for a dynamic stretch 4.

The Hawks come to this series with a lot of depth, and the Cavaliers have very little of it—perhaps some surprise performances from Atlanta’s deep bench players won’t be that surprising.

LeBron’s Passing Lanes Shut Down

For the season, LeBron James had nearly twice as many assists as he had turnovers. But in his three games against the Hawks, James had 14 turnovers up against just 17 assists. The Hawks are fifth in the league in steals per game, with three members of their starting lineup—Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague, and DeMarre Carroll—averaging at least one per game.

Al Horford Had His Way

The Hawks starting center excelled in his three games against the Cavaliers, shooting 63.8 percent from the field, a huge jump up from his 53.8 percent accuracy for the season. Also, Horford had 12 assists across the three games, up against just three turnovers. Here are the highlights from Horford’s 20-point game in December.

Even with defensive stalwart Anderson Varejao in the game, Horford was mostly able to avoid Varejao, either exploiting the favorable matchup against Kevin Love, or quickly whipping the ball to the open man. In the March contest between these two teams, the only one that featured Mozgov, Horford still had a solid 7-for-12 night, hitting five of his shots away from the key, where the post-dwelling Mozgov is hesitant to go.

Tristan Thompson Had His Way

Most of the positives in the Hawks versus Cavaliers matchup do go to Atlanta: 3–1 is a pretty convincing margin, especially considering that one of Atlanta’s victories was by 29 points. There were definitely still positives for Cleveland, though, especially the play of Tristan Thompson, who has been pushed into starting duty following Love's shoulder injury. Thompson shot 79.2 percent from the field in his four games against the Hawks. As Thompson talked about this week, he knows that it’s his job to crash the boards and gets rebounds against the Hawks’ “finesse” frontcourt.

Thompson’s top-10 offensive rebounding rate has stayed the same even as his minutes and responsibilities have skyrocketed in the playoffs: he’s getting almost four per game. Look for that rate to stay the same or even rise, as Horford and backup Pero Antic both spend a lot of time on the perimeter. Following Thompson’s lead and assuming a more physical style of play could be a huge factor in lifting the Cavaliers past the Hawks.

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