Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 Keys To Beating The Hawks
1. LeBron Has A Kingly Series
Paul Millsap locking up Kevin Love should be one of Cleveland’s biggest fears entering this second round matchup, but the Cavs might have a trump card that’d force Atlanta to switch defensive assignments: LeBron James.
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Having the best player in a series always helps, and there’s little doubt about whether LeBron James will live up to that role. The Hawks have a few quality/vastly improved defenders to throw at King James to tire him out, with Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha likely to draw the majority of that assignment.
But if LeBron starts torching Baze and Sefolosha (which will likely happen), head coach Mike Budenholzer may have to consider trying Millsap on him — potentially opening up Love to exploit a smaller matchup against Baze, since Al Horford wouldn’t cover Love as long as Tristan Thompson is still on the floor.
But even without the added benefit of making life easier for Kevin Love, all the Cavaliers really need is for LeBron James to dominate inferior competition the way he did in the first round, when he put up 22.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game. He’ll have to be better against Atlanta, but with Kyrie dominating, the Cavs didn’t really need LeBron to put up historic numbers.
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Against a tougher Hawks opponent, however, LeBron will have to elevate his game another notch. If –and most likely when — he does, the Cavaliers should have more than enough to beat Atlanta and advance to King James’ sixth straight Eastern Conference Finals appearance.