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ECF: Cavs 4 - Hawks 0

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I'mWithDan said:
A lot of praise for a team that struggled to get past the Wizards. Atlanta is a good team but they are incredibly overrated IMO. They're slightly better than Chicago but a team we have far better match ups against.

Can they beat us? Sure. Will they? If Kyrie is 80%, we beat them IMO. I don't care how good Caroll is. I can't imagine LeBron is going to shoot near 40% in another series.
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Just out of curiosity how do you figure that we have better matchups against the Hawks?

The Hawks basically eliminate Mozgov due to the skillsets of Horford and Millsap, and with our already truncated front court unit we are going to see a ton of minutes on 7 guys.

Matchup-wise the bulls bigs aside from Pau played much more to our strengths without Love.

Get ready for a good dose of Jones and It wouldn't completely shock me for Marion to get some minutes... I expect a lot of small ball with TT at the 5.
 
It's gonna go 6 or 7 against the Hawks, sadly I dunno which way it'll go.
 
Zen said:
Just out of curiosity how do you figure that we have better matchups against the Hawks?

The Hawks basically eliminate Mozgov due to the skillsets of Horford and Millsap, and with our already truncated front court unit we are going to see a ton of minutes on 7 guys.

Matchup-wise the bulls bigs aside from Pau played much more to our strengths without Love.

Get ready for a good dose of Jones and It wouldn't completely shock me for Marion to get some minutes... I expect a lot of small ball with TT at the 5.
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Wouldn't Mozgov still have value as a rim protector to try and stop drives by say Teague or Schroeder or Carroll? Mozgov would also have a size advantage on the offensive end for lobs?
 
Paul said:
Wouldn't Mozgov still have value as a rim protector to try and stop drives by say Teague or Schroeder or Carroll? Mozgov would also have a size advantage on the offensive end for lobs?
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I don't see how you can keep him on the floor for very long against Horford or Millsap. If Horford isn't hitting his shots and Moz can sag off into the paint, maybe.

Horford has a much improved corner 3 and is a really solid passer, I just feel like we would be exploited like crazy with Mozgov on him but hopefully I'm wrong.
 
Atl and the Bulls have similarities. Both will allow us to play undersized. Bulls because you didn't have to guard Noah and Atl because they don't have much size. Dunleavy is a poor man's Korver and Carroll is a poor man's Butler. Hawks have an edge because they have a legit back up PG that is tough to stay in front of, but Bulls had a better lead man in Rose.

I've said all season that I though a healthy Chicago was our toughest test in the East and we got through them being almost as healthy as they could be. I don't think the Hawks can defend us as well, but they will stretch the defense more with their perimeter shooting.

Ultimately, I think it plays out very similar to the Bulls series. Cavs in 6.
 
Zen said:
I don't see how you can keep him on the floor for very long against Horford or Millsap. If Horford isn't hitting his shots and Moz can sag off into the paint, maybe.

Horford has a much improved corner 3 and is a really solid passer, I just feel like we would be exploited like crazy with Mozgov on him but hopefully I'm wrong.
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I see what you're saying. It's possible. It may come down to what the Cavs are willing to concede to the Hawks offense. I don't think I'd be in favor of any lineup involving Marion though. I'd probably rather take my chances with Mozgov. Mozgov looks silly on the court at times but he's also a huge part of why our defense is playing efficient. I remember in the last Hawks game vs the Cavs, Horford was really nailing the midrange shots. I think that was a big part of what killed us. I guess we may have to pick our poison.
 
First things first, I'd like to see the Cavs properly prepared the first game. It's fine if we can't win it, but to lay an egg to start the first 6-8 minutes can really put us in the hole early.

Second, people have to understand... while we may be putting our laurels on D at this point, we might have scoring droughts of our own. We were able to get away with it in game 6 vs. the Bulls... how will it work against the Hawks?

I feel we have a shot, but we have no idea how the Hawks will look against us. That might be the game changer, motivation can do a lot for an upstart team looking to make a statement.

How will we matchup to these guys? Will they hit more jump shots on average? Will not having a proper spread floor force us to use Jones more? Plenty of things to debate up to the first game, but we have no idea what we're in for until we play the damn game... Hopefully we can get our answers quickly.
 
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Zen said:
Just out of curiosity how do you figure that we have better matchups against the Hawks?

The Hawks basically eliminate Mozgov due to the skillsets of Horford and Millsap, and with our already truncated front court unit we are going to see a ton of minutes on 7 guys.

Matchup-wise the bulls bigs aside from Pau played much more to our strengths without Love.

Get ready for a good dose of Jones and It wouldn't completely shock me for Marion to get some minutes... I expect a lot of small ball with TT at the 5.
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Paul said:
I see what you're saying. It's possible. It may come down to what the Cavs are willing to concede to the Hawks offense. I don't think I'd be in favor of any lineup involving Marion though. I'd probably rather take my chances with Mozgov. Mozgov looks silly on the court at times but he's also a huge part of why our defense is playing efficient. I remember in the last Hawks game vs the Cavs, Horford was really nailing the midrange shots. I think that was a big part of what killed us. I guess we may have to pick our poison.
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Other than the right elbow area, Horford shoots about 46% on midrange jumpers. See below link for Horford's shot chart.

http://vorped.com/1-nba/2014-2015/player/1085/al-horford/

We need Mozgov's size in the game, both offensively and defensively. If we lose because Al Horford is making 18 foot jumpers and we aren't able to close out on him quick enough, so be it.

Moz and TT should absolutely pound the Hawks on the offensive glass. Going small and allowing them to focus just on TT would be a mistake, in my opinion. Milsap is a good rebounder, but I don't think there's any way he is strong enough to keep those two off the glass.

In the final 6 minutes or so of the games Moz can sit on the bench if he is a defensive liability vs. Horford, but I don't think not playing him at least 28-30 minutes a game is a very good solution. One of the Cavs' big advantages in this series is their size. Giving that away is not something that I would want to give up. If we are getting 10 extra possessions a game (offensive rebounds) because we play big, I'll take that and live with Horford shooting jump shots.
 
Northstar said:
Other than the right elbow area, Horford shoots about 46% on midrange jumpers. See below link for Horford's shot chart.

http://vorped.com/1-nba/2014-2015/player/1085/al-horford/

We need Mozgov's size in the game, both offensively and defensively. If we lose because Al Horford is making 18 foot jumpers and we aren't able to close out on him quick enough, so be it.

Moz and TT should absolutely pound the Hawks on the offensive glass. Going small and allowing them to focus just on TT would be a mistake, in my opinion. Milsap is a good rebounder, but I don't think there's any way he is strong enough to keep those two off the glass.

In the final 6 minutes or so of the games Moz can sit on the bench if he is a defensive liability vs. Horford, but I don't think not playing him at least 28-30 minutes a game is a very good solution. One of the Cavs' big advantages in this series is their size. Giving that away is not something that I would want to give up. If we are getting 10 extra possessions a game (offensive rebounds) because we play big, I'll take that and live with Horford shooting jump shots.
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Fingers crossed.

Like I said if Mozgov can sag into the paint and Horford shoots a human percentage I think we will be good. If Moz has to start closing out thus opening the paint and driving lanes for their guards it will get ugly.

Id rather force Horford into a jumpshooter and shut down korver and their easy penetration. The more I think about it it might not be a bad strategy to leave Moz out there clogging the paint and dare Horford to be a volume scorer while shutting down his passing.
 
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Does anyone know where I can get tickets to the Q watch party for Friday?
 
That's about what he shot vs the Bulls so would be on point.
 
Reading this thread is interesting.. it seems like a lot of folks believe that Mozgov now has no value because the Hawks are a smaller team..

What's interesting about that logic is when we went into a series with the Bulls, we kept hearing about their size and we needed to somehow match up with it.

Now with the Hawks we hear, from some, how we have to go small ball to match up with them.

I disagree with that. Why can't we be the team that forces others to adapt to US? Mozgov can cause Atlanta serious problems, both on offense and protecting the rim from their PG penetration. Why is size an advantage for Chicago vs the Cavs, but not for the Cavs vs the Hawks? My hope is that Mozgov is a huge problem for the Hawks because they have no real answer for his length and size. In basketball, that is an advantage for us, not a reason to park him on the bench.

I realize Horford will be a challenge for him, but how well can Horford check him on D either? And like others, without having seen a game yet in this series, my initial thought is to take our chances with Horford shooting volume jumpers and attempt to slow down their PG penetration and ultimately their three point shooting. I feel THAT is what would ultimately kill us, if they get hot from outside.

I am curious as we all are at how this will play out and how different it will be from the Bulls series.. but the Moz isn't some sort of liability that must be shelved. He will provide challenges to the Hawks just as Al Horford will for us.
 
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