The tale of the series between the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers coming into the night was the team versus star player concept. Can the entire team of the Atlanta Hawks get it all together in order to defeat the star, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers?
In Game 1 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron dominated for the most part but it was a bench player that came up huge for Cleveland.
LeBron James scored 31 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists and J.R. Smith made Cavaliers franchise record eight 3-pointers during his career-high 28 point night, leading the Cleveland Cavaliers past the top-seed in the East the, Atlanta Hawks 97-89 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Atlanta was looking to get off to a quick start in front of their home crowd that was roaring to start. The Hawks jumped out to a nine-point lead in the first quarter and shot 61 percent early on. James went to the bench with about 3 minutes remaining in the first after picking up his second foul. The Cavs shot 35 percent in the opening quarter, but the Cavs rebounding prowess kept Cleveland in the game and prevented the Hawks from pulling away. Cleveland outrebounded Atlanta 15-6 in the first quarter. The Cavs pulled down seven offensive rebounds, which was more than Atlanta’s total rebounding output for that quarter.
LeBron returned in the second quarter and began to take control for the Cavs. He scored 14 points in the quarter on 7-of-9 shooting, taking advantage of the smaller Hawks defenders when Atlanta was trying to get LeBron to commit his third early foul. It didn’t matter to LeBron as he kept getting to the basket at will and avoiding contact at all costs.
The teams were all tied up at the half but the Cavaliers took control when Smith knocked down back-to-back 3’s in the third quarter. After he drilled his second three he turned toward the Atlanta crowd and blew off his right index finger and motioned toward his side and holstered his pistol. J.R. Swish definitely had the hot hand tonight. The Cavs outscored the Hawks 22-4 over the final 5 minutes of the third quarter and in first 2 minutes of the fourth.
The Cavs scored the first 11 points of the fourth to get their biggest lead of the night, 85-67. LeBron James sealed the victory with a huge dunk in the final minute of the game, going right past the Hawks defense and an onlooking Kyle Korver but Smith was the one who ignited the Cavaliers scoring all 28 of the Cavaliers 28 bench points.
Jeff Teague led Atlanta with 27 points to lead the Hawks, Al Horford scored 16 points and Paul Millsap dropped 13 points. There were three other Cavs who scored in double-digits. Tristan Thompson dropped 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Timofey Mozgov scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds with an injured Kyrie Irving scoring 10 points with 6 assists.
The night really turned for the worst for the Hawks when DeMarre Carroll, their leading scorer in the playoffs, went down with an apparent left knee injury driving to the basket with 4:59 remaining in the game. Carroll was helped to the locker room, not putting any weight on his knee. His injury left the crowd in silence and could be a huge blow for the Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals. Not only is he their main defender for LeBron James, he managed to turn into an offensive force in the playoffs, averaging more than 17 points per game coming into the first Eastern Conference final in Hawks history.
For the Hawks, it was the second straight series in which they’ve lost the opening game at home. Cleveland will look to take command of the series in Game 2 on Friday night on TNT at 8 PM.
