CLEVELAND: Twenty-five thoughts for 25 3-pointers in Wednesday’s 123-98 win over the Atlanta Hawks to give the Cavs a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals…
1. One by one, the 3-pointers fell from all sides of Quicken Loans Arena. One by one, 10 different Cavs landed them. LeBron James made four. J.R. Smith made seven, including some off one foot while spinning and falling out of bounds. Moondog even made one from half court flipping it over his head – on his first try.
2. And when it was over, when Dahntay Jones and Mo Williams completed the assault and the Cavs walked off the floor with an NBA-record 25 3-point baskets, the Cavaliers had officially returned serve on the Golden State Warriors.
3. The Cavs tied a record the Warriors also shared with 20 3-pointers in a first-round win against the Detroit Pistons. Four nights later, the Warriors broke that mark with 21 3s. Now the Cavs have reclaimed it by making a staggering 25 3-pointers Wednesday, including 18 in the first half.
4. “It’s on them now,” Kevin Love joked to the Beacon Journal. “It’s not like we’re going out there saying, ‘We’ve got to beat them on what they’re doing’ or play their type of game. We’re just going out there and playing our game.”
5. If anyone doubted whether the Cavs could serve as a worthy adversary to the 73-win Warriors’ quest to repeat, their start to this postseason should clear that up. The Cavs are averaging 16.2 3-pointers per game, easily the most of any team this postseason. The Warriors are second at 11 per game.
6. Certainly the San Antonio Spurs will get a vote in deciding the Finals matchup and dismissing them already would be foolish. But a Cavs-Warriors rematch would be played between the 3-point lines.
7. James, however, insists the Cavs aren’t a 3-point shooting team despite the numbers. And the numbers are extraordinarily impressive. Smith leads the league in 3-pointers made this postseason, the Cavs have made more than any team and they’re shooting the best percentage at .453.
8. “We’re not a 3-point shooting team. We don’t want to be labeled that,” James said. “We’re a well-balanced team that’s capable of making 3s. … Obviously we’ve got guys that can knock down shots from the perimeter. It’s been key to our success but we have to continue to understand that we have to be very balanced offensively.”
9. Despite what the numbers indicate, the Cavaliers are not the Warriors. They can’t put five guys on the floor who can all dribble, pass and shoot like the Warriors can. But their drive-and-kick game in these playoffs has been exquisite, which was James’ larger point.
10. “If you look at a lot of the 3s that were made and a lot of 3s that were taken, the ball was getting to the paint first and then it was spraying out,” he said.
11. The stigma for so many years was how a team of jump shooters could never win in the NBA. The Phoenix Suns reinvented the game a bit when they aimed to get a shot off within the first seven seconds of the shot clock. Cavs general manager David Griffin was in Phoenix for that era, but the Suns never won anything.
12. The Warriors, however, validated that style of play with a championship. Of course, they were also animals defensively and have players who can put the ball on the floor and make plays for others. But the idea of a jump shooting team never winning a title died about the time the Warriors raised a banner. Now so many other teams, including the Cavs, are following suit.
13. “Our league is point-guard driven and I think Golden State has definitely kind of reshaped our league,” James said. “The fact that they’re able to shoot the ball extremely well and they have so many multiple pieces. I think what gets lost in translation with Golden State, people call them a jump-shooting team, but what really gets lost is their ability to have multiple guys on the floor that can do multiple things. Their personnel fits. For us, we don’t want to be just a one-base team. We don’t want to be a jump-shooting team, we don’t want to be a running team, we want to be well-balanced. I always look at the football analogy. You have a well-balanced offense with running and passing, then it can free up a lot of things, so that’s what our team is about.”
14. Looking at the final numbers in the Cavaliers’ box score is jarring. They made more 3s (25) than 2s (16). Their 3-point baskets outnumbered the Hawks’ total baskets until the fourth quarter. The only players on the active roster not to attempt a 3 Wednesday were centers Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov – and Mozgov seven 3-pointers this season, too. So where is the NBA game headed?
15. “Tonight was one of those nights where you just kind of sit back and shake your head,” Love said. “The differential between 2s and 3s is kind of where the game is headed, especially because to see the 4 and 5 men stepping out and shooting 3s now and the center position is kind of being a lost art.”
16. Tyronn Lue concedes now he worried at times if the Cavs would ever get here. When they made the coaching change, some members of the organization privately wondered if things would get worse before they’d get better.
17. Indeed, record-wise at least, they did. Lue’s record over the second half of the season was slightly worse than David Blatt’s record during the first half.
18. Lue tried implementing so many changes when he took over – from quickening the offensive tempo to lengthening the rotation and tinkering with the defense – he admitted at times he felt like he was trying to do 500 things at once.
19. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes the ball never moved on offense and bodies never moved defensively. The team with ADD would lose focus at inopportune times and suffered bad losses to inferior opponents.
20. All of that is gone now. The ball is popping inside and out, swinging from side to side. The Cavs have held the Hawks to under 40 percent shooting in the first two games and Lue has yet to lose a playoff game.
21. “I was concerned a little bit. I didn’t think we had enough practice time, enough time for me to put my stamp on this team,” Lue said. “They picked it up. The biggest thing with me and my coaching staff was trust. Defensively, we’re starting to trust. When the ball, the ball finds energy anyway. I think the guys have bought into playing that way, and it’s fun to play that way.’
22. Funny moment when James was asked if he’d like to be able to play like Smith for one night. Marla Ridenour wrote about Smith and his fluorescent green light here.
"LeBron, do you ever wonder what it would be like to play like J.R. in one game?" 😂😂😂 https://t.co/JeVRsyF69c
— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 5, 2016
23. Not sure where the Hawks go from here. Granted, the Dallas Mavericks came back to beat the Thunder in Game 2 of the first round after losing Game 1 by 38. Similarly, the Thunder beat the Spurs this week in Game 2 after losing Game 1 by 32. But the Hawks have lost their last nine to the Cavs and their last three postseason losses have been by an average of 22 points.
24. “If they shoot the ball like that,” Hawks guard Kyle Korver said, “I don’t know if anyone can beat them, to be honest.”
25. Game 3 is Friday night at Philips Arena. Talk to you then.