The Cleveland Cavaliers (9-2 SU, 6-5 ATS) look to take a 2-0 series lead when they visit the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks (8-5 SU, 5-8 ATS) Friday in Game Two of their Eastern Conference Final.
You can watch the game live on TNT.
The Cavaliers struck first with an emphatic road win to open the Eastern Conference Final, knocking off the Hawks 97-89 Wednesday for their first Game One playoff series road win in franchise history. The Cavs are 4-2 ATS on the road this postseason.
Playing in their first ever Eastern Conference Final the Hawks would probably like a do-over after succumbing to the Cavs on Wednesday. The loss is bad, but not something the Hawks haven’t faced before. In fact Atlanta dropped the opener at home to Washington in the conference semifinal round and took the series in six games.
KEY INJURY
Atlanta forward DeMarre Carroll left Wednesday’s game with a left knee sprain, an injury that threatens his status for the remainder of the series. He was hurt when his knee buckled on a drive to the basket with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“It’s going to come down to the last couple of minutes. It’s going to come down to the last couple of possessions. You need to have confidence that you can get stops. You need to have confidence that you can execute and score. Whichever team is able to do that has the best chance.” – Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer
BETTING TRENDS
- Cleveland is 4-2 ATS in its six postseason road games.
- Atlanta is 2-5 ATS in its last seven home games.
- The UNDER is 7-3 in Cleveland’s last 10 games overall.
KEY STATS
8: Forward JR Smith made eight of Cleveland’s 10 three-point baskets on Wednesday, taking 12 shots from beyond the arc and scoring 28 points.
27: Atlanta guard Jeff Teague scored a playoff-high 27 points Wednesday, his second straight game with at least 20 and fifth this postseason.
49: The Cavaliers totaled 49 rebounds Wednesday, compared to Atlanta’s 37, led by Timofey Mozgov’s 11 and 10 from Tristan Thompson, exposing Atlanta’s major weakness all season.
ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION
LeBron was LeBron scoring a game-high 31 points Wednesday, but the Cavaliers got a huge lift from JR Smith, who was unconscious, silencing the sellout crowd and stunning the Hawks with an array of three-pointers. Smith nailed eight threes in 12 tries and finished with 28 points. “When he gets hot, he gets smoking hot,” coach David Blatt said of Smith. The Cavaliers used their superior size to dominate the boards and stymie the Hawks offense in the second half. Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson clogged the middle forcing Atlanta to beat them from the perimeter and the strategy worked as the Hawks connected on just four of 23 three-pointers.
Atlanta suffered a big blow when forward DeMarre Carroll went down late in the fourth quarter with an apparent knee injury. Not only is Carroll the team’s leading scorer in the playoffs, he had the assignment of guarding LeBron James on defense. “DeMarre is a complete player. He has a big impact at both ends of the floor,” coach Mike Budehnolzer said. The Hawks made a run to get within four points after Carroll left the game and for the Hawks it’s not about one player, it’s about the team. And when several members of the team don’t play as well as they are capable the plan is ineffective. The Hawks need better efforts from Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap and Dennis Schroder to make the team complete.
The Hawks are too familiar with their current predicament. They fell behind the Wizards after dropping the opener at home in the semifinal round and came back to win that series in six. So don’t count them out just yet, even if DeMarre Carroll is lost for an extended period of time. The Hawks settled for too many perimeter shots and lacked aggressiveness on offense. Expect this team to make the necessary adjustments with Kent Bazemore and Mike Muscala picking up extra minutes in Carroll’s absence. JR Smith won’t go off from three-point range like he did Wednesday, you can bet on that, and Kyrie Irving lacked his usual explosiveness, his foot and knee injuries noticeably bothering him, so the Cavs are faced with some issues of their own. The Hawks pick themselves up Friday and even the series.
Atlanta 98, Cleveland 91
The NBA lines for this contest will first be released by BookMaker sportsbook. Minute-by-minute spreads, totals and props are available for this game using the live betting platform at BookMaker.
Access live betting lines from your mobile device at BookMaker sportsbook! You can wager on sporting events as they unfold on television with BookMaker’s live betting platform. Real-time spreads, totals, props and moneyline odds are all available by clicking here so start betting with BookMaker today! The Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks square off on Friday, may 22, 2015, at 8:30 p.m. ET at Philips Arena. The contest will be broadcast nationally on TNT.
