The Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers meet again in the 2016 NBA Playoffs. Here are five reasons that Atlanta can upset the top-seed Cavaliers.
In one of the more intriguing second-round series in the 2016 NBA Playoffs, the top-seed Cleveland Cavaliers will meet the No. 4 seeded Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Playoffs for the second straight season.
Though Cleveland would go on to sweep Atlanta in four games in the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals and the Hawks haven’t topped the Cavs since the 2014-15 NBA regular season, there is some belief that Atlanta can make this a competitive series, possibly pulling off the upset.
For the Hawks to upset Cleveland, Atlanta will need to play at least four near-perfect games in this best-of-seven series. Though Atlanta again is the underdog in this playoff series like the Hawks were last year, Atlanta did show some signs in their first round series with the Boston Celtics that might make them better equipped to challenge Cleveland this spring.
Atlanta will have to be at full strength to pull off this significant second round upset, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that the 2015-16 Hawks can again make it to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals. Preventing LeBron James from going to his sixth straight Eastern Conference Finals would be impressive in its own right.
Here are the five reasons the Hawks can knock off the Cavaliers in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals series.
Next: 5. Bad blood since 2015 Eastern Conference Finals