Hawks Win in 7, Take on LeBron in 2nd Round

Well that was a weird series, wasn’t it? A seven game series and not a single game was close. In fact, the average margin of victory was almost 20 points, and there was not a single lead change after the first quarter in a single game. Think about that: the team leading after the first quarter won every game without ever giving up the lead. NBA basketball betting is a game of runs, right? Really?

Joe Johnson, who had been stymied all series, finally shook loose and scored 27 points on only 19 shot attempts. He went 6-8 from deep, including two ridiculous pull up 3s from like 35+ feet. Swish, swish. He got serious help from Josh Smith, who had 21 on 7-12 shooting, and 15 from Flip Murray. The Hawks stepped up and played the defense that should be their hallmark. They held the Heat to 41% shooting from the field and forced 19 turnovers, while only giving up 9 of their own.

D-Wade got his 31 points, but he need 25 shot attempts to get them. The Hawks did a good job of walling off the paint when he had the ball, and forced Wade to shoot one jumper after another. If Wade had been hot from deep (he went 2-9), it might have been a close game, but he wasn’t.

This was an ugly series to watch, and not just because of the lopsided scores. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two playoff teams with simpler or just plain worse half-court offenses. People were standing around like it was a Grade 7 dance. For Cleveland in Round 2.

In the end, Miami may take more out of the loss than Atlanta takes out of the win. Miami had a drastic improvement from last season, going from 16 wins to 43. Wade is healthy and undeniably one of the top 3 talents in the league. Beasley looks like he may turn into something special, assuming he can pull his head out of his rear. More importantly, the Heat will have a ton of flexibility to rebuild their roster this offseason. They have up to 8 free agents, none of whom they’ll be in too big a hurry to resign. Joel Anthony, Yakhouba Diawara, Jamario Moon and Chris Quinn are restricted free agents, while Luther Head and Jamaal Magloire are unrestricted. Plus, Pat Riley will have an attractive bargaining chip in Jermaine O’Neal’s monstrous expiring contract.

For the Hawks, it’s off to meet the King and his merry Cavaliers. It’s a matchup that has “dominance” and “sweep” written all over it. The Cavs have been resting after absolutely dismantling the Pistons in four games. Also, you simply cannot beat the Cavaliers’ defense without excellent ball movement. Their defenders, especially on the perimeter where the Hawks thrive, are simply too good. The Hawks do have the raw ability to slow down the Cavs on offense, but the effort was only there a few times against the Heat. Maybe the matchup with LeBron will raise the intensity, it will have to. Round 2 may be just as ugly, but it won’t take as long.