Shelvin Mack and his teammates have an answer for their critics.
To those who say the Hawks are just not that good. To those who say the lack of a superstar will prevent a serious title run. To those who say the performance in the Eastern Conference Finals relegates the 2014-15 regular season to nothing more than a nice little story.
“You can’t judge three games over 82 games,” Mack said Monday, a day after the Hawks lost a 114-111 overtime decision to the Cavaliers to trail the best-of-seven series 3-0. “We are just in a bad phase right now. We have to figure out a way to get it done.”
The Hawks are on the verge of being swept in the conference finals. The Cavaliers can advance to the NBA Finals with a victory in Game 4 Tuesday night. The Hawks face the challenge of overcoming a three-game deficit never before met in league postseason history.
“We are a really good team,” Jeff Teague said. “We played well the whole season. Things just happened. (The Cavaliers) are playing well. They have really good players. We never said it was going to be easy. We are not going to discredit what we did all year.”
The Hawks were a good team in the regular season. They won 60 games. They earned the top seed in the Eastern Conference. They landed four players on the All-Star team. They won 19 straight games, including all 17 in January.
Now, they have won two playoff series, a feat not done by the organization since they won the 1958 NBA Championship when located in St. Louis. They are in serious trouble of having the dream season end with one more loss to the Cavaliers.
Despite the daunting task at hand, the Hawks were not about wave the white flag of surrender.
“We don’t care what anybody else thinks,” Paul Millsap said. “We feel like we are a really good team despite what the record says. We feel like a few of those games we let get away. It’s been on us.”
The Hawks remain staunch defenders of their team-oriented philosophy. The Hawks have faced difficult circumstances in this series. They are without Thabo Sefolosha (broken right fibula). They lost Kyle Korver (severe high right ankle sprain). DeMarre Carroll is playing in pain (left knee sprain). Al Horford was ejected with seconds remaining in the first half of Game 3.
The Cavaliers have not been immune to issues of their own. Kevin Love (right shoulder) is recovering from season-ending surgery. Kyrie Irving (left knee) missed the past two games. But they have LeBron James. The best player in the league had 37 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists after missing his first 10 shots in Game 3. James willed his team to victory by scoring the final five points Sunday.
“Every team has different ways to build and different ways to give themselves what they feel is their best chance,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “There is no doubt the way we’ve built the team with a lot of really good players, a lot of high-character guys. We feel like we can compete and play with anybody in the league. They’ve done it a different way. It’s a great battle. Obviously someone is going to win and lose. This is the way we are built. We believe in it. We think we can win at a high level. We’ll continue to do that.”
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