CLEVELAND -- It was a brutal, merciless eulogy. The Atlanta Hawks' historic season was over from the moment the Cleveland Cavaliers stepped on their home floor on Tuesday night, a 118-88 rout that underscored the chasm between two teams on two divergent postseason paths.
Down the hall from the Hawks' reserved locker room, the cacophony following LeBron James & Co. delivering just the second NBA Finals berth in Cavaliers franchise history could be heard clearly, all the Hawks' season could have become being bestowed upon the better half of the one-sided Eastern Conference finals. Like the four East challengers before them, the Hawks couldn't figure out James. They couldn't figure out their own recurring issues. They lost their shooting touch. They couldn't mask their shortcomings, couldn't find their feared rhythm.
It was an unfitting end.
Then again, the end never seems to fit in the eyes of the defeated.
"In the playoffs, you learn and grow a lot, including in a night like tonight. It's not something anybody wants, but I think we've always talked about learning and growing each day, each experience, and I think throughout the playoffs we've done that," Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "We'll learn from tonight and we'll learn from this series and we'll be better going forward."
The Cavaliers outscored the Hawks by 53 points over the four games. James continued his pursuit of numerous NBA records -- he became the first player in NBA postseason history to average 30 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in a series, according to Elias -- Tristan Thompson flexed his muscle inside, Cleveland wings feasted on open 3-pointers and the absences of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were hardly noticeable, if at all. Though Atlanta entered as the top seed, Cleveland was really only challenged once, and never in a road environment.
The Hawks were handed their own set of misfortune, but decisive sweeps often fail to acknowledge nuance.
For all intents and purposes, the Cavaliers ran the table convincingly.
This was a blitzkrieg.
In retrospect, it appears the Hawks poured everything left in the collective tank into their Game 3 overtime push. If it was ever going to happen -- or if the series ever had a chance to return to Philips Arena -- that was the opportunity. With Al Horford ejected and wings Thabo Sefolosha and the soon-to-be-surgically-repaired Kyle Korver out with injuries, Budenholzer scavenged his bench for odd matchups and possible utility. All-Stars Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap, for the first time in the series, looked the part. They were, collectively, somehow, the better team. That was their window. Per the overarching storyline throughout the East race, though, the series' best player slammed any and all windows shut.
LeBron James was the difference in Game 3. He's been the difference for five straight Eastern Conference titles, becoming the first player since Bill Russell and the '60s Celtics to rattle off a half-decade of conference ownership. His presence wasn't nearly as vital in Game 4, as All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving returned to the fold for Cleveland, which also received more quality production from Thompson and J.R. Smith, among others.
James remains the gravitational pull that dictates the Cavaliers' tides. The Hawks were in over their heads regardless.
Now, they can only look ahead to what this two-year movement could become.
This is a franchise that's fully invested in the collective, the concept that by finding the correct puzzle pieces there's big-picture success at the end of the tunnel. Following a series dubbed Team vs. Superstar that went the wrong direction, and fast, a vision that was once clear in January seemed a bit hazier. The organization knows there's work ahead.
There's prevailing sentiment that this one-sided sweep exposed something on this Hawks team: an inherent weakness, a fraudulent identity, an undeserved seeding, something. A crippling postseason deficiency, perhaps. Something separating them from great teams. To paraphrase: "Maybe this isn't the NBA's next evolution."
When asked prior to Game 4 about this sentiment, Shelvin Mack, a player who likely would never be playing at this stage were it not for the aforementioned injuries, "You can't judge three games over 82 games." Four games offers a slightly larger sample, but not any worse of an indictment on how the Hawks manufactured success.
The Hawks front office built with haste and purpose. In two short years, it reconfigured all that once was about a franchise operating on the margins: the rare lottery afterthought, never the contender. It flipped a roster bogged down by bad contracts and stagnant play for a flexible bargain that, at times, operated at the NBA's highest level. The league's standard operating procedure is to assemble giants overnight through free agency or slowly build via draft success -- the Hawks eschewed that model, looking to the likes of undervalued pieces Kyle Korver, DeMarre Carroll and Paul Millsap instead.
Their model is still unproven in taking down superstars like James come playoff time, but discrediting 68 combined wins for a four-game sample is reductive. Same goes for the social media-driven notion that a sweep qualifies Atlanta as an historically underachieving 1-seed, despite, at the surface level of the argument, the existence of five previous top seeds losing to 8-seeds since the league expanded its playoff format to 16 teams in 1984. Conference final berths are rarely, if ever, a given -- four No. 1 seeds have failed to make the penultimate round this decade alone -- and to erase such accomplishments in hindsight is like erasing LeBron's history-chasing run of five straight Finals appearances because he's lost in two of them.
The Hawks found success, plenty of it, they just happen to have a long way to go in order to see things from Cleveland's vantage point, as was evidenced by the Quickens Loans Arena scoreboard on Tuesday night.
How they get there remains to be seen.
"We had a great season. … We did a lot of things in Atlanta basketball history this year, had a great season, won a lot of games. But we ended on a disappointing note," All-Star point guard Jeff Teague said. "I think everybody in the locker room is disappointed. It's early for our team. It's only our second year together."
In a situation contingent on the collective, Atlanta faces key personnel decisions in the near future. There are no guarantees for Year 3.
Carroll and Millsap are coming out of cost-friendly two-year deals looking to capitalize on both team and individual success. Both are expected to draw significant league-wide interest and sign the richest contracts of their careers, or head in that direction when the NBA's new TV deal kicks in for the 2016-17 season, and with around $20-plus million cap space to play with the Hawks may have to get creative financially. Budenholzer referred to those two essential pieces as offseason priorities.
The team will need to bolster its bench as Pero Antic, John Jenkins and Elton Brand (possible retirement) prep for free agency and Thabo Sefolosha recovers from surgery. The team's No. 15 overall draft pick, secured in a pick swap with Brooklyn in the still-running Joe Johnson trade, should help. Playoff injuries and ejections exposed just how reliant Budenholzer was on his starting five to carry the group, and even if that unit returns intact the second group has to be more productive if there's a deeper playoff run in this team's future.
A four-game sweep, particularly one this resolute, doesn't come without question marks.
"This team has done a lot, and we have confidence in this team. We'll look to improve and look to get better, but bringing back this time would excite us, excite me. It's a hell of a group," said Budenholzer, who is also the acting general manager in the wake of Danny Ferry's leave of absence. " ... To bring them back would be a huge priority."
If the franchise's plan once again comes to fruition, the obvious next step will be to use this sweep, as opposed to letting it tear down what was an otherwise excellent season. Players repeatedly pointed to the seven-game loss to the top-seeded Indiana Pacers in the 2014 playoffs as clear motivation to continue in a positive direction. The same applies here.
The image might look blurry following a thorough beating, but after two seasons of exponential growth the Hawks need to once again find clarity. A franchise once on the margins, a decisive sweep was not the only line in that eulogy. This season hit the restart button on basketball in Atlanta, dragging an organization out of an ugly situation off the court by producing something worth watching on it.
And to hear them tell it, they aren't done.
"It's clear that we have some work to do as a team," Al Horford said. "We have a lot of work ahead."
