It was only Wednesday that we were celebrating the long-deferred arrival of the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals. As Friday became Saturday, we were coming to grips with a much colder reality.
There might not be another NBA game staged at Philips Arena until November.
The Hawks, a team with four All-Stars, are down 2-0 against a club now working without its second- and third-best players. After trailing by 18 points in Game 1, the East’s No. 1 seed fell 20 behind in Game 2. They lost 94-82. They received what should have been a lift from the surprising reappearance of DeMarre Carroll, who’d been injured Wednesday, and yet they played as if sedated.
We’ve been saying for a while that the Hawks haven’t found their feet in postseason, and for this 60-win team the postseason could be down to its final two games. They have to win once in Cleveland just to force Game 5, and has anything in Games 1 and 2 inspired hope of a rally? The Cavs look great. The Hawks look lost.
They were outclassed Friday by the Cavaliers, who won seven fewer games than the Cavs in the regular season and who didn’t have point guard Kyrie Irving. Said Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer:”(The Cavs’) group is playing well regardless of who’s on the court … They have played well in two games, and I don’t think we’ve been at our best.”
Well, duh. But it’s one thing not to be at your best, quite another to save your worst for the games that matter most. Budenholzer again: “Right now we’ve just got to get better going into Game 3.”
Just getting better mightn’t do it, though. The Cavs have been so much better in these two games that the gap between these teams is as broad as Lake Erie. LeBron James toyed with the Hawks on Friday, doing whatever he pleased whenever it pleased him. He scored 30 points, made 11 assists and took nine rebounds.
The Cavs led by five after one quarter, by five after two. Without Irving, they’d pressed sub Matthew Dellavedova into service as a starting point guard, and he ended the half with more fouls (three) than assists (two). But having LeBron on your team means you’re never lacking a guy with distribution skills.
Back when he was playing for St. Vincent-St. Mary, many scouts pegged James as the next Magic Johnson, as opposed to the next Michael Jordan, and as he ages he becomes less a blunt instrument than a surgical laser. In the first quarter he made like Michael and scored 13 points; in the second he made Magic with four assists, all on 3-pointers.
Said Cavs coach David Blatt: “I’ve got a pretty good vocabulary, but I’m running out of superlatives … He’s just a great basketball player.”
James had five more assists in the third quarter, and darned if four of those weren’t on treys. Remember when LeBron’s 66-win Cavs were upset in the Eastern finals in 2009 by an Orlando team that ringed Dwight Howard with shooters? That’s what this recalled, only LeBron wasn’t playing the low post. He was driving and kicking like Jameer Nelson, who weighs as much as James’ left leg.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Iman Shumpert and Dellavedova off LeBron feeds pushed the Cavs’ lead to 11. Another Shumpert trey — this off James’ behind-the-back pass — made it 15. A driving bank by James and the resulting free throw made it 78-58, and about here even the staunchest Hawks believer was thinking, “You know those folks who said the Hawks couldn’t hold up against LeBron at money time? Maybe they were right.”
Already down a game, the Hawks should have hit the floor flying. They did not. Even the fierce Carroll conceded that his team didn’t “come out with energy.”
Think about that. Down a game, playing at home, the Hawks lacked oomph. How, Carroll was asked, could that happen?
“I don’t know, man. We were just flat.”
By game’s end, what had been a vibrant Philips Arena had been reduced to a half-empty house. The Hawks had been routed and Kyle Korver had hurt his ankle and the series was bound for Ohio, perhaps never to return. These Eastern Conference finals sure seemed fun, but then LeBron showed up — and the Hawks pulled a no-show.
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