CLEVELAND: Twenty-one thoughts for 21 points from Kyrie Irving in the Cavs’ 104-93 win Monday over the Atlanta Hawks for a 1-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals…
1. Tyronn Lue immediately groaned last week when I mentioned how the Cavs have managed to neutralize Kyle Korver for the last two years.
2. “Don’t do that, man,” he said. I asked if he thought I just jinxed them. “I hope not,” he said.
3. No jinx. The Cavs’ defense on Korver remains as stifling as ever. He took just one shot in Game 1 as the Cavs rendered one of the league’s best 3-point shooters ineffective yet again. He touched the ball just 30 times – the same number of touches Mike Scott received – and passed on 27 of them. The Cavs believe slowing down Korver is a huge piece to slowing down their offense so they’ll commit as many bodies to him as necessary.
4. The Cavs boxed him in at times Monday. They ran multiple defenders at him. LeBron James picked him up a few times when J.R. Smith passed him off. It looked to me like the Cavs treated Korver similarly to how they treated Steph Curry in the Finals last season, but a couple players told me in the locker room that wasn’t the case.
5. The Cavs focused their entire defensive attack on slowing Curry, but because he also initiates it made things a little trickier. Korver is merely a cog in the Hawks’ machine; he isn’t the engine. If Korver doesn’t have a good look, a couple players said he’ll keep the ball moving in the Hawks’ system. So one of the Cavs’ keys in this series is preventing Korver from getting open looks in transition – his lone shot Monday was a transition 3.
6. “They don’t leave Kyle anywhere,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “They’ll send two people at him, they’ll send three people at him and leave other people with opportunities. A lot of the shots we get, we’ll take. We’ll continue to take the same opportunities and if they’re going to run two, three guys at Kyle, other guys are going to have good looks and good opportunities.”
7. On this night, that meant Dennis Schroder. His 27 points were a career playoff high, as were his five 3-pointers. In fact, Schroder made just three 3s in the Hawks’ first-round series against the Celtics and had only 12 career postseason 3s prior to Game 1.
8. In other words, the Cavs would much rather have Schroder taking those 3s than Korver. If he makes a few of them, so be it. The odds of him duplicating this type of performance again in this series remains slim.
9. “It’s the game in between the game that people don’t see. We have a scouting report and we followed that scouting report for 48 minutes,” LeBron James said in response to a question about Schroder’s big night. “We are professionals. Guys make shots and things happen over the course of the game, which is OK. Schroder hit some big shots. He played exceptionally well. But we followed the game plan that our coaching staff gave us and it gave us the best possible chance to win.”
10. The Cavs’ problems in third quarters this season have been well documented. They handled third quarters much better against the Pistons in the first round, but ran into problems again Monday night late in the quarter after building an 18-point lead with about 16 minutes to play.
11. “When you get it to 18, all you’ve got to do is lift the shovel up and pour dirt on ‘em, especially if you want to be a high-level team,” Richard Jefferson said. “We didn’t do that tonight and it almost cost us.”
12. The Hawks’ best players did not play well Monday. Jeff Teague shot 2 of 9 after averaging 21.5 points against the Cavs in last year’s conference finals. Al Horford shot 4 of 13 and Paul Millsap shot 6 of 19. Millsap had problems last year, too.
13. All of the Hawks had problems corralling Tristan Thompson again. Thompson had 14 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. His offensive rebound late in the game was crucial and led to James’ three-point play that essentially sealed the win. Marla Ridenour wrote more about Thompson here.
14. Additionally, Thompson was all over the court defensively. He contested 16 shots, tied with Millsap for the most of anyone on the court. He and James each recovered three loose balls, a big reason the Cavs grabbed 12 of 17 loose balls against the Hawks.
15. The Cavs began the night with the worst defensive field-goal percentage in the playoffs of the remaining eight teams. But they held the Hawks to just 38 percent shooting, which is about the number the Hawks held the Celtics to in the first round.
16. Kevin Love took another blow to that right shoulder late in the game when Kent Bazemore landed on it during Love’s 3-point shot. He needed the shoulder worked on again by trainer Steve Spiro – it was the same shoulder Love injured in Game 4 against the Pistons, but the opposite shoulder he had surgery on last spring. Love later cramped up, but said he’d be fine for Game 2. “I’m fine,” he said. “I can’t catch a break with that shoulder, but I’m fine.”
17. The Hawks did a nice job on Kyrie Irving, who went scoreless from the 3:07 mark of the second quarter until his 3-pointer with 7:37 left in the game. Just as the Pistons series, however, the Big Three dominated 62 percent of the Cavs’ touches in the game (243 of 394).
18. Curious aspect with the free-throw shooting. Through the third quarter, Love was the only member of the Big Three to shoot a free throw. The hawks were 11 of 16 from the line through three quarters while the Cavs were 3 of 4. And the Hawks took nearly as many 3-point attempts by that point (24) as the Cavs (29).
19. “I thought our guys did attack the basket, tried to get to the basket and we just didn’t get the calls,” Lue said. “So we’ve just got to stay aggressive, continue to do what we do and we can’t complain about the referees getting foul calls. Just got to keep driving and being aggressive.”
20. The Cavs began the night averaging more 3-pointers per playoff game (14.3) than any other team in the postseason. Then they followed it up with 15 more 3s in Game 1. Michael Beaven has the details.
21. Long way to go in this series, but if the Cavs appeared vulnerable to lose a home playoff game, this seemed to be the one given the long layoff. Talk to you Wednesday following Game 2 at the Q.