Hawks-Cavaliers NBA Playoff series needs to go five games for just one reason
The Atlanta-Cleveland NBA playoff series has become what looks to be a walk in the park for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the series desperately needs to return to Atlanta for a Game 5, and not for the sake of the Hawks’ playoff chances.
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Anyone who has been a fan or follower of any Atlanta professional sports team for any amount of time knows this – the Atlanta Hawks are (probably) done in this playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The best season in franchise history is (probably) going to come to an end at the hands of the best player on the planet and his minions.
But the series can’t…shouldn’t…couldn’t end in Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena. The Hawks need to find some way to finish what they started during Wednesday night’s overtime loss, and notch a win in this series so as to return it to Philips Arena.
Why? Not because I’m the eternal optimist who thinks the Hawks can come back from a 3-0 deficit and make their way to the NBA Finals (but wouldn’t that be something?). Not because I selfishly don’t want the Cavs to be able to celebrate on their home court (well, maybe that does have a little to do with it). No, this series needs to return to Atlanta for one reason and one reason only.
The fans in Atlanta deserve the chance to give the little Australian irritant a full course of Southern hospitality the likes of which Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo only experienced in their most vivid heel fantasies.
Dellavedova would come into Philips as the ultimate black hat…a marked man…with 19,500 Pac-Man wearing hitmen staring at him in the crosshairs. It wouldn’t even matter if the Hawks lost a Game 5, as long as the fans had the opportunity to give the business to the guy they see as the dirtiest player since Bill Laimbeer.
Is the 6-foot-4 (really?) guard out of St. Mary’s in Australia that dirty? It all depends on perspective and perception. For Atlanta fans, it doesn’t matter. He managed to soil the reputation of one of the cleanest and most likeable players in the NBA, and use a Paul Johnson-ish chop block technique to eliminate the Hawks’ best sharpshooter – and for that fact, forgiveness will not come easily.
Al Horford and Kyle Korver deserve to be avenged.
Atlanta columnist Steve Hummer may have best capsulized how Dellavedova is viewed:
"“If you do your most effective work while rolling around on the floor like a Roomba with an attitude, you’re probably dirty. (Let’s count Dellavedova’s big moments in this postseason: Scissoring Taj Gibson’s legs in the Chicago series; taking out Kyle Korver with a chop block; inciting Al Horford by tumbling into his knee).If what you do on a basketball court would be considered career-threatening in the NFL, you’re probably dirty.If you’re a carrier for potential torn ligaments, as a mosquito is for heart worm, you’re probably dirty.If every pick-up player in America watches you and decides, “Oh, I’d end up punching that dude in the first 10 minutes,” you’re probably dirty.If the most responsible player on the Hawks attempts to drop the atomic elbow on you, you’re probably dirty.”"
Whether or not he’s a “dirty” player or just a guy full of an NBA dose of Pete Rose’s Charlie Hustle elixir is beside the point. He has launched himself from irritant to full blown fan-dermatitis, and Hawks’ fans deserve the chance to scratch away at that itch and then pour a heaping pink glob of Caladryl on it in the form of a Kyle Korver stare-down.
The Hawks have a huge task in front of them to get the series back to Atlanta. They have to overcome in Game 4 what has turned into a stifling and strong-arming Cavaliers defense and find a way to replace the shooting of Kyle Korver, the defense of Thabo Sefolosha and the package of injury-damaged goods formerly known as Demarre Carroll and Paul Millsap.
If they can do it, and bring the series home for at least one more game, you’ll see the most fun Atlanta fans have had since chasing Henry Aaron around the basepath.
But the Hawks will need to bone up on their Australian Rules Football first, apparently.