Five Reasons The Atlanta Hawks Shouldn’t Lose Hope
By Ti Windisch
5. It Took an Insane J.R. Smith Heat Check for the Cavaliers to Win
Seriously, how often is J.R. Smith going to come off of the bench and manage to score 28 points on 8-of-12 shooting from behind the arc? I mean it’s classic J.R. Smith for him to do something like that every once in a while, but I don’t even think J.R. expects that kind of dynamic scoring to happen again anytime soon. The Hawks lost by eight in a game where Smith scored 28.
If J.R. doesn’t find his stroke from long range, does Atlanta win the game? Maybe, but I’m not a huge fan of hypothetical situations, especially when they’re about things that have already happened. What’s done is done.
The real encouraging thing to come from Smith’s heat check for the Hawks is that he was the only one to come off of Cleveland’s bench and manage to score. Literally, out of the three Cavaliers to come off of the bench, only Smith scored at all on Wednesday.
If Smith returns to earth for Game 2 and Atlanta continues to suppress the rest of the Cavaliers’ bench, the pressure to score will be set squarely on the starting lineup’s shoulders. Although it’s tough to stop LeBron and Kyrie from getting theirs, if those two have to carry the entire load the Hawks at least be involved in every game yet to come in these Eastern Conference Finals.
So don’t count out Atlanta just yet. If there’s one thing the rest of the Hawks have gotten from DeMarre “Junkyard Dog” Carroll, it’s to never stop fighting.
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