What an accomplishment. No Love, a hobbled Kyrie and all the pressure is on James and this team just swept the conference's top seed in dominating fashion.
I am, by no means, content with a conference title. I know the toughest competition is a week away, but to be within 4 wins of a championship with this squad is truly special.
Realistically, I thought the Cavaliers had the better team than the Hawks, but I did not see just the amount of sheer domination that would occur.
The rebounding difference was astonishing. 50+ more than the Hawks in the entire series pretty much sums up the conference finals to me. Cleveland just had a ton more offensive possessions than Atlanta and is light years ahead in offense so that is a futile thing for the Hawks.
It seemed to me Cleveland wanted it more. I have been a fan of this league since before I could form a coherent sentence out loud so I know determination is an overlooked metric in this sport. Atlanta was just happy to be there, Cleveland wasn't. That mentality trickles down from James to everyone. He is truly an influence on this organization more than just his play on the court. His play isn't bad either, nearly averaging a triple-double this series is just sick.
The midseason moves by Griffin paid dividends when the games truly matter. Shumpert and Smith are a HUGE upgrade over Dion. Mosgov solidified the size and his offensive game is underrated.
To me, it wasn't the stars that made the biggest impression. It was everyone else. Like previously mentioned Shumpert, Smith and Mosgov. What about TT? He was put in a tough position when Love went out and he has exceeded everyone's expectations and its all on his motor. Delly has contributed and all you want is fight and hustle from those guys off the bench and they provide that.
As a series, not game 4 alone, this was beautiful to watch. Like I said, I am not content with just representing the East on the biggest stage, I want the whole damn thing and this squad has a huge opportunity to do that.
I am still on the fence on playing Kyrie in game 4. I know he is a competitor and he wants to be out there and he looked good, his shot was on par but he still has a noticeable gate in his step. Rest doesn't seem to work, I hope the tweaked treatment helps. They need him to win it all. Biggest concern was seeing how he took a fall on it, he seemed to get up just fine and I think its more about pain threshold than making matters worse.
Anyways, way to go Cleveland Cavaliers. The mission is not done and I look forward to a finals matchup that will be surely entertaining.