2015 NBA Playoffs Preview: Eastern Conference Finals
- Parker H.
- May 19, 2015
- 3 min read
Cavaliers vs. Hawks
The two conference favorites line up for the big final that starts tonight with the Atlanta
Hawks getting home court advantage. When looking to breakdown the series the first
questions will be who will Lebron James be guarding and who will be guarding him?
“The King” has averaged 26 points 7.9 assists and 10.2 boards these playoffs, and the
funny thing is I think his passing is his greatest attribute. He has help, but at times James
has seemingly dragged the Cavs to wins and not many teams have an easy task matching
up. Lebron is going to see Paul Milsap and a lot of Demarre Carroll. Carroll is the teams’
best wing defender, and would stand the best chance versus James, but the problem is
Lebron is at the wing a lot less without Kevin Love. Lebron has turned into a stretch four,
which allows an extra shooter to join James on the court, and has given Cleveland their
best matchups in that lineup. This lineup would force Carroll to be watching a guy like
JR Smith, and put James on a banged up Milsap. Bringing Milsap away from the hoop
affects rebounding, and gives James a bigger mismatch than what he has seen in the
regular season.
James will also have the task of watching Milsap, which could be a chore for him, but
may not be too hard with Milsap not looking anywhere near 100%, These playoffs
himself, as well as the whole Hawks team has settled for too many outside shots. To shut
down Milsap and his decent game outside of the paint would put the Hawks in a
predicament. With Iman Shumpert being assigned to Kyle Korver, and little offense
coming from the specialist Carroll, the Hawks offense will be in the hands of Al Horford
and Jeff Teague. Horford is banged up like Milsap and will have his hands full against a
fired up Tristan Thompson, and vetern Mozgov.
Teague will need to be the x factor and will need to take advantage of an injured Kyrie
Irving. Jeff Teague is one of the most underrated point guards in the NBA, but I thought
it was something to note that he didn’t necessarily take advantage of the Wizards when
John Wall was injured. He even has lost a few crunch time minutes to the young Dennis
Schroder. If he isn’t facilitating and taking it to the hole the Hawks just do not have
enough scoring elsewhere to win this series.
The Cavs are prone to turnovers, and a high volume shooting team is due for high volume
slumps, so I wouldn’t call this a sweep, but the mismatches lean toward the Cavalier
being the better team and the better teams typically win these series’. Las Vegas tends to
agree as the lower seeded team holds a -225 price to win the series. I would look to bet
these games individually as you can almost expect when James is going into must win
mode so keep watching, but I would look to lay the -225 and I would expect the Cavs slip
at least once early on the road but get it together and eventually win this series in six
games.
Parkers Picks
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS -225
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS IN 6 +220
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