No decoder is needed to determine why the Hawks have been overwhelmed in the second half of both games in the Eastern Conference Finals to trail the Cavs 2-0. Atlanta’s offense has all but abandoned its passing game at halftime.
The questions are: Why? And, is it something the Cavs are doing, something the Hawks are not, or both?
Atlanta scored just 17 points in the third quarter of Friday’s 94-82 loss without a single assist, and fell behind to where – same as in Game 1 – Cleveland’s late offensive bogdown didn’t matter because Atlanta had dug itself too deep a hole.
The Hawks made just 7-of-22 shots in the third period, and that was an improvement upon Wednesday, when they scored 16 on 4-of-17. It didn’t matter much that Cleveland scored just 10 points in the fourth quarter Friday because Atlanta trailed 84-66 after three, and the Hawks weren’t much better in the final period.
“It’s the second game in a row; [the third quarter] really kind of hurt us,” said reserve forward Kent Bazemore. “You have to give them credit. They shot the &*$% out of the 3.”
Indeed, the Cavs made 5-of-11 3-pointers in the third quarter Friday, and 12-of-30 in the game. Cleveland is crushing Atlanta by the long ball, beating the Hawks at their own game. In two games, the Cavs have made 22-of-56 (39.3 percent) to the Hawks’ 10-of-49 (20.4).
The Cavs are overplaying the Hawks on the perimeter, and daring Atlanta to challenge the paint. The Hawks are sort of taking advantage of that, outscoring Cleveland 48-30 in the lane after registering a 46-42 edge in Game 1, but not so decisively as to compensate for other disparities.
The Cavs late in the regular season and into the postseason have improved defensively while assimilating Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, and Timofey Mozgov after they were acquired in trades, and Tristan Thompson is better defensively than the injured Kevin Love.
“I definitely think that in the last two games they’ve shown an ability to defend and do things at a pretty high level,” said Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer. “We need to make shots when we’re open, but … it’s going to be important for us to screen better and ultimately get guys open. They’re making it difficult.”
Collective emotional letdowns have pushed the Hawks into bad habits, or away from good ones.
They made just 13-of-38 shots in the second half Friday (34.2 percent), and 12-of-37 Wednesday (32.4) for halves of 38 and 33 points, respectively. They’ve scored 51 and 49 in the first halves.
Cleveland is jumping passing lanes, and while the Cavs are not necessarily ripping off the Hawks – Cleveland had no steals in the third quarter – Atlanta has been persuaded by the Cavs’ aggressive defense to pass less.
“We’ve gotten smarter [defensively],” said Cleveland superstar LeBron James. “We’ve ramped up our communication to a level that at times during throughout the season I didn’t know we could get to. We’re flying around, and helping.”
“We need to make six, seven, eight passes a possession,” Bazemore said.
“I did feel like the ball was sticking,” said Al Horford. “We got away from playing Hawks basketball.”
The Hawks grew discouraged and resorted to hero ball.
“That’s what we said at the end of the game, that we played too much isolation,” said DeMarre Carroll. “The issue, I think, we just … we got to get back to playing unselfish basketball.
“I think sometimes we get down, and everybody tries to take over one-on-one. At the end of the day, we know we’re not moving the ball like we should.”
