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Game Thread | Game #63 | Cavs @ Hawks | Feb. 24, 2023

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JBB didn't congratulate Hawks coach lmao.

Walton met him half court instead, followed by some other Cavs assistants.
 
Okoro missing shots early caused a big 4 stroke. They stopped playing defense. My guess a emergency meeting will be held tomorrow.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
The Cavs head south for the second night of a back-to-back against the Hawks, who have been off since before the All-Star break. The Hawks are 29-30 overall and 15-12 at home. Since starting 13-13 the Hawks have been within two games of .500 the entire season. They mostly alternate wins and losses. The Hawks are in 8th place, one game ahead of the 10th place team and in danger of missing the play-in.

More was expected and head coach Nate McMillan was fired over the break, replaced by one of the assistants.

These teams played in Cleveland on Nov. 21 with the Cavs winning114-102. Trae Young led them with 25 points but was a -19. Garland and Mitchell combined for 55 points and 18 assists while Cedi had 23 off the bench.

The Hawks rank 14th in offensive efficiency but are 8th in points per game because they are 2nd in the NBA in field goal attempts per game. They have the second lowest turnover rate and they don’t waste a lot of time getting their shots up. They average 117 per game on the road but the Cavs held them to 102 in November. The Cavs forced 16 turnovers that night.

The Hawks’ percentage of 3-point shots is the lowest in the Association. They’re not very good at making them, either, ranking 22nd in 3-point percentage. They were 11-for-34 against the Cavs in November. However, they just traded for Saddiq Bey, who they hope will provide them with a little more outside scoring, although he’s only hitting 35% from deep this year.

The Hawks are 9th in points in the paint and 29th in percentage of points on 3’s, so I can see how they would have a tough time with the Cavs. The Cavs are 3rd best at preventing points in the paint so they seem to match up well defensively against Atlanta. When the Cavs lose it’s usually because they give up a lot of 3’s, like last night against Denver.

The Hawks lead the NBA in percentage of mid-range shots and are 6th in mid-range accuracy. They are just 19th in shooting percentage at the rim.

Defensively they are 21st in both efficiency and scoring. They are 26th in opponents’ points in the paint per game, so the Cavs should take it inside. The Hawks are very good defending the 3, ranking 7th in opponents’ shooting percentage from deep. Taking it to the rim is the way to go against this team, especially on the road on the second game of a back-to-back with tired legs.

The way the Cavs were bricking 3’s last night (27%) they should take it to the hole on every possession tonight.

Trae Young leads the Hawks with 27 points and 10 assists per game. He’s a high volume shooter, hitting 43% overall and 36% on 3’s. The Cavs held him to 1-for-7 on 3’s in the first game and forced 6 turnovers. He’ll be looking to do better tonight. He’s really dishing it out lately, averaging 12.6 assists per game in February.

Dejounte Murray is the shooting guard. His line is 21/6/6 on 46% and 36%. He had a miserable game against the Cavs going 4-for-17. Garland and Mitchell dominated Young and Murray in the first game and I’m sure the Hawks guards will be looking to get back some respect.

SF De’Andre Hunter averages 16 points on 46% and 36%. PF John Collins averages 13 points and 7 rebounds on 51% from the field, but he is out with a concussion. C Clint Cappella averages 12 points and 11 boards. Bey, who just came over from Detroit, averages 14.5 points but is shooting just 40% overall and 35% on 3’s. I expect he’ll get some minutes along with Bogdan Bogdanovic, who averages 15 points off the bench.

With John Collins out the Cavs will not face their opponents’ starting power forward for the second night in a row. Evan Mobley had 31 points with Aaron Gordon out last night so he could have another big game.

Collins’ replacement will probably be 6’10”, 240 pound Bruno Fernando, who they just acquired from Houston. Fernando averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes with Houston. Another possibility is Jalen Johnson, a 6’8” small forward, who averages 5 points in 14 minutes. Neither is in the same league as Collins, so the Cavs catch a break.

So it’s pretty straightforward. The Hawks are 15-12 at home and will be playing their first game since getting blown out by the Knicks at home 122-101 nine days ago, an effort that got McMillan fired, although the decision might already have been made.

It’s hard to say how they will play given it’s their first game in over a week and first game with an interim head coach. Sometimes teams play fantastic in their first game after a coach is fired. As badly as Young and Murray were outplayed in Cleveland I expect much better performances from them, so this could be a tough game to win after a late plane flight. The Cavs will have Rubio and should be at full strength.

The Cavs admitted they should have won last night so I expect them to come out with a lot of fire and try to jump on the Hawks early. Hopefully the outside shooting will be better than last night’s embarrassment.
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I definitely appreciate the write ups on each game. Very detailed and spot on. I think you can save yourself some time in future previews by leaving all 3 point stats of the opponent out of it. Stats go out the window when other teams play us. Every team turns into the greatest 3 point shooting team ever. I feel like an i9 10U team would shoot 57.6% from 3 against this #1 ranked “defense”. 136 points to the Atlanta Hawks
 
Utter humiliation. I didn’t watch but when I looked at the box score and saw DG was scoring a bunch I knew we were down 20+. He only seems to go off when it doesn’t matter.

So glad we didn’t make any moves before the deadline. Stuck with this trash roster for 20 more games plus the 4 games sweep in round 1
 
Rich said:
Yea he can't move. He's gonna be getting DNPs most nights. I imagine this is his last season.
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If that becomes reality then BOTH JBB and Koby need to be shown the door this summer for wasting money and time and ignoring other viable options for this team.
 
Ohioplayer00 said:
If that becomes reality then BOTH JBB and Koby need to be shown the door this summer for wasting money and time and ignoring other viable options for this team.
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Such as? He was a buyout player.
 
An entire week off and we come looking like we played the entire All Star break!
 
First game this year I felt the Cavs were humiliated. This is game 63 so I guess that says something. At least they fought back to within 13 points after being down by 34. If Cedi makes a 3 they're down 10 with 9 minutes to go. But he missed badly and the Hawks easily regained control and quickly pushed the lead back to 20.

In the first game Young was 1-for-7 and Murray was 4-for-17. I said in the preview these guys would want to get some respect back. Well, they did. They combined for 59 points and 17 assists.

That 49-point second quarter was a bitch slap. The Hawks made their first 15 shots of the quarter. I've never seen a team make 15 consecutive field goals against anybody, much less one of the top defenses in the NBA.

The Cavs consistently got beat down the floor for easy layups, lost track of players under the rim, and got sucked into the paint allowing uncontested corner 3's. Young toyed with them. You could tell he was not going to be held to a single field goal this time - far from it. He finished with 34 points on 15 shots and was 14-for-15 on free throws.

The Cavs bench was outscored 29-9 in the first half. I really feel like we have four solid players and everybody else is a mix of good and bad. The Hawks rolled to an easy win without starting PF John Collins. It didn't matter.

The Cavaliers did not make their first jump shot until nearly three minutes into the second quarter. They started 0-for-7 on 3's and also missed all their 2-point jumpers. All their first quarter points were at the rim or on free throws. Incredibly bad outside shooting, just like against Denver the night before.

The Hawks scored 108 points in the first three quarters - beyond embarassing. They were 18-for-22 in the second quarter, which had to be the worst quarter the Cavs have played in years, if not ever.

The Hawks got Saddiq Bey from Detroit to give them more 3-point shooting and he was 5-for-8 on 3's and finished with 20 points in 28 minutes. Okongwu came off the bench for 13 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes, along with 2 steals and 3 blocks. Our bench is pretty much a joke. Cedi and Stevens played well (+9 and +8), but that was it. Neto did a solid job.

Hopefully this game will embarass the Cavs to the point where they come out with a lot more fire from now on. But right now they look kind of lost. The defensive breakdowns leading to uncontested dunks and wide open 3's were alarming. Just when this team got healthy they stumbled coming out of the break. This next game against Toronto at home will be huge. The Cavs are 0-3 against the Raptors and Toronto is on a roll.
 
At least Miami lost (by 29) and Brooklyn also lost (by 44). Wow. A couple of our competitors for playoff positioning got hammered even worse than we did.

It's not unusual for a team to play great in the first game after the coach gets fired. And the Cavs were on the second night of a back-to-back while the Hawks were at home and had 8-9 days off. Still, that's no excuse for not getting back on defense, losing track of 3-point shooters, and allowing so many uncontested dunks.
 
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