I was having a meeting with some buddies last night and I looked up at the Cavaliers and Hawks game.
It was 63-36. Had to be a typo, right? Right?
It wasn’t.
The Cavaliers hit 25 freaking 3-pointers (an NBA record), shooting 55.6 percent from deep on Wednesday night. J.R. Smith was given the ultra-green light (as if he needed it), making seven of 13 bombs. It seemed like half the shots he took were him sprinting to spot, stopping on a dime and throwing up a contested 3-pointer. As a defender, what can you do besides say, “Aw, shucks. Nice shot J.R.!”
More importantly for Cavs’ fans, that LeBron James was 4-for-6 from deep, finishing with 27 points. James is the most dangerous when he’s hitting outside shots, which seems like a dumb thing to type because all players are most dangerous when they can do that, but you get what I’m saying. It allows him to penetrate and create for others instead of letting the defense dare him to shoot.
In the first two games, the Cavaliers have hit 40 3-pointers. During the regular season, the team averaged 10.7 per game. After the game, James said that the Cavaliers weren’t a 3-point shooting team, which is a lie since the team hit 880 3-pointers in the regular season, ranking second in the NBA.
The worst thing about it for the Hawks is that they shot 11-for-27 (40.7 percent) from deep. And they still lost by 25 points.
Former Wolves forward Kevin Love finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds for Cleveland. He shot just 3-for-12, but it really didn’t matter. Five Hawks scored more than 10 points, but nobody scored more than Paul Millsap’s 16.
The Cavs move to 2-0 in the series. The series will continue on Friday at 6 p.m. in Atlanta.
