Cavs-Hawks: It's all on James

Can ‘the King’ carry another depleted Cavs team to Finals?

Here’s another case of one man vs. an entire team, these Eastern Conference Finals.

LeBron James is healthy, Kyrie Irving isn’t, Love is out. This has become the 2009-10 Cleveland Cavs all over again – a bunch of ragtag players on James’ back.

Irving has had six days to rest, but he was a shell of himself in the last series with an injured ankle and knee. He played 12 minutes last time out. He said he “feels good,” today but that means very little. It’s not like he’s going to tell the world he’s still only about 50 percent. Then again, maybe he’s playing opossum.

Meanwhile, the Hawks may be hitting stride. Maybe. They’ve won three in a row, Al Horford is dominating (15.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists in the playoffs) and they have no apparent injuries – though I still think Paul Milsap is a dinged up.

Aside from James, the Hawks are better in every aspect. And, they have a defensive specialist in DeMarre Carroll who quite possibly could, kind of, maybe, somewhat slow James. A little? OK, that’s doubtful, but that will be Carroll’s only responsibility.

Jeff Teague may be the best point guard in the series with Irving’s status unknown. The Horford-Milsap combo is more potent than the Cavs’ Tristan Thompson-Timofey Mozgov frontcourt.

Kyle Korver may be the key to the entire series. He hasn’t been good – shooting 38.5-percent from the field and 35 from beyond the arc. And the Cavs could put James on him, making Korver disappear.

Unlike the Houston-Golden State series, the matchups don’t favor any one team. Yes, James is better, but he’s not the guy dropping 50 points anymore. His best is making others better. Those others were fine against the offensively-inept Bulls. But they can’t keep up with the Hawks offense. Atlanta plays a team game, a Spurs-like offensive game. 

Defensively, if Irving is a shell of himself, maybe he guards Carroll, who usually just shoots 3s. James could either lock down Korver or Teague. JR Smith, Shumpert and Co. can guard whoever’s left and then the Cavs have to hope their bigs stay out of foul trouble. If that happens, James guards Milsap and either Teague or Korver may be able to go off.

I just don’t see Cleveland keeping pace, unless James goes into the way back machine and scores 35 a game, or Irving is somehow close to 90 percent. If that’s the case, it’ll be closer, but I still take the Hawks. If for no other reason than I really just like team basketball over what the Cavs and Rockets do.

-Hawks in seven.