Cavs look like a juggernaut

The NBA playoffs are here. The games are tighter, the lights are brighter, and the narratives are getting thick. It can be a lot to keep up with but don’t worry we’re here to help. Throughout the NBA postseason, FanSided will be gathering together some of the most talented writers from our network for a daily recap of our favorite stories from the night before.

Welcome to the Rotation.

Cavs proving they won’t be the West’s doormat

Cody Williams | @TheSizzle20 | Lake Show Life, FanSided

The narrative surrounding the Cleveland Cavaliers all season, particularly during the more tumultuous times, has been that the Eastern Conference was theirs to lose. Though they haven’t officially advanced past the second round yet, Game 2 against the Atlanta Hawks where the Hawks accomplished something by not losing by 30 essentially confirmed that the Cavs are cruising toward another trip to the Finals

However, the second part of that narrative that’s stuck around this season is that the trip out of the East will only earn the Cavs a hefty walloping at the hands of either the Golden State Warriors or the San Antonio Spurs –whichever emerges from the Western Conference. And while you might still have to consider the West champs the favorites against the Cavaliers, it’s becoming increasingly likely that Cleveland will be up for the challenge to push whoever they face.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this second round matchup against the Hawks for the Cavs is that Atlanta is the team that most closely resembles what Cleveland would see from either the Warriors or the Spurs. With their lineup versatility, dynamic playmakers, and emphasis on ball-movement, the Hawks are basically the diet version of the two favorites out of the West. Even if they are zero-calorie, though, that still makes what the Cavaliers have done in the first two games of the series and especially in Game 2 all the more impressive.

What’s more is that the Cavs are starting to show their hand a bit in how they would have a chance at combatting what a team like the Warriors likes to do. While Tristan Thompson was huge for Cleveland last year in the Finals with both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love sidelined due to injury, he’s not part of their most dangerous lineup this season. As he played by far the fewest minutes of any starter in Wednesday night’s route and with guys like Love and Channing Frye seeing more minutes in quicker, more versatile lineups, you get a glimpse of how this team could theoretically have a shot at withstanding the “lineup of doom” that the Warriors run with Draymond Green at center.

There’s a chance that this is all an overreaction to LeBron and company rolling through a slate of far inferior opponents in the East and that they are still just lambs being raised for slaughter when it comes to the Finals. However, this showing against the Hawks to this point and how emphatic it’s been through two games seems to indicate otherwise.

J.R. Smith owns the Hawks and this isn’t a new trend

Brad Rowland | @BTRowland | FanSided

The Atlanta Hawks endured an absolute nightmare in Game 2 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The end result was a three-point barrage that constituted an NBA team record, and Mike Budenholzer’s team will travel back to Georgia in a seemingly insurmountable 0-2 hole.

If this sounds familiar, it probably should.

The Hawks were unceremoniously swept by the Cavs during the 2015 playoffs, and while LeBron James is always the center of attention in Cleveland, there is another nemesis for Atlanta on the other side. His name is J.R. Smith.

Though it would have been perfectly fair to suggest Tristan Thompson’s name in the same slot based on his defensive utility and dominant offensive rebounding, it has been Smith delivering back-breaking blows over the course of two seasons. In the 2015 match-up, the now 30-year-old swingman connected on a blistering 47.1 percent of his three-point attempts, and with Smith taking 8.5 per contest over the course of the four-game sweep, the damage was significant.

During the historic explosion in the first half of Game 2, it was, again, Smith firing dagger after dagger through the collective heart of the Hawks. The sometimes volatile shooter banged home six (!) of his ten (!) attempts before halftime, tallying 20 points including at least one launch that made the entire basketball world shake its head in disbelief.

On one hand, this was J.R. being J.R. in a beautiful way. From the moment he entered the NBA as a straight-from-high-school phenomenon, Smith has been a highly entertaining and explosive offensive player, combining crazy athleticism with unlimited shooting range and a non-existent conscience when it comes to firing the ball at the rim. His career hasn’t always been smooth, though, resulting in Smith playing for four organizations in total, creating some distracting issues with his personality and needing to “earn” his minutes in Cleveland through stellar play.

Smith has done just that, however, and the Hawks simply have nothing in the way of an answer. After a 4-for-7 showing from long distance in Game 1, Smith finished 7-for-13 from three in the second match-up, and while he wasn’t alone by any stretch (Cleveland shot ?? from three), an argument could easily be crafted that his attempts came with the highest degree of difficulty and the greatest level of impact.

LeBron James makes everything go, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are extremely talented players who are overqualified in supporting roles, and Tristan Thompson morphs into an All-Star level player when he sees the Atlanta Hawks on the other side of the floor. However, J.R. Smith has taken his game to a different place in this match-up over the last two seasons with 50 percent shooting from deep, and that sound you hear is Atlanta scrambling for defensive answers to combat Smith’s supernova shooting.

Kyle Korver has lost his gravity

Ian Levy | @HickoryHigh | FanSided

Kyle Korver used to be a star. Not in the selling sneakers and leading promos kind of way, but as a body whose gravity was so powerful that its simple movement couldn’t help but warp the reality around it. Last year, Korver had one of the greatest shooting seasons we’d ever seen (non-Curry Division) and he was a huge part of the offensive success of the Atlanta Hawks. It wasn’t just the efficiency his shooting generated, it was the way that his cuts, through and around screens, absorbed attention from defenders and disfigured the structure of a defense.

Defending Korver, the places where Korver could theoretically arrive for an open jumper, and the four other Hawks was a nearly impossible task. It seems to have gotten much easier. Korver made 49.2 percent of his three-pointers last season, on 6.0 attempts per game. During this season, he made 39.8 percent on 5.0 per game. Those are still elite numbers, but nowhere near as impactful — the drop in accuracy equates to losing roughly 30 total points for every 100 threes Korver attempted. The slide started in the playoffs last year — which were abbreviated for Korver because of injury — when he made just 35.5 percent of his threes.

At this point, Korver is back up to a robust 44.2 percent on threes in the playoffs. However, if you remove Games 2 and 3 against Boston when he made 10-of-16, he’s shooting just 33.3 percent in the postseason. He’s 1-of-3 in the two games against Cleveland.

There are a lot of reasons Atlanta’s offense has stalled out this season (although crumbling defense has been a much bigger problem against Cleveland). What’s changed for Korver has been like a rubber band, squeezing the whole system. He is still an incredible shooter but the phenomenon has been diluted. Taking and making fewer three-pointers is like putting the rest of the offense in a box filled with maple syrup. There is less space, defensive attention is more appropriately balanced, moving through space requires a little extra effort because defenders are where they’re supposed to be. Driving lanes are tighter. The low block is more easily crowded.

Korver only played 20 minutes in the Game 2 blowout, but he’s still only attempted about two three-pointers per 36 minutes in the second round. He averaged 9.5 per 36 in the regular season last year, 8.2 per 36 this season. He is no longer breaking defenses with presence alone and the Hawks offense looks decidedly damaged without him at his best. If Atlanta is going to turn this series around, they’re going to need Threezus to find his gravity.