The best supporting casts that LeBron James ever had around him were ones who were really willing to get after it defensively.
You can say what you want about James and all of his isolation plays on offense, but this Cleveland Cavaliers (63-31 SU, 46-48 ATS) really has played fantastic defensive basketball against the Atlanta Hawks (68-28 SU, 55-39-2 ATS) to go up 2-0 on the road heading into Game 3 back at the Q on Sunday night.
KILLER INSTINCT ON DEFENSE THE KEY FOR CAVS
We know that James isn't surrounded by the best pieces to the puzzle right now. We know that Kevin Love isn't walking through those doors. We know that Kyrie Irving will be hobbled if he even plays. We know that Tristan Thompson isn't a polished offensive player at this point.
However, to David Blatt's credit, the key to winning Games 1 and 2 on the road has been locking down Atlanta's three-point shooters. We never imagined that the Hawks were going to have a second game of shooting as horrendously from beyond the arc as they did in Game 1. Granted, Game 2 wasn't quite as bad as 4-of-23 from downtown, but 6-of-25 wasn't very good either for a team which shot near 40 percent for the regular season.
The key has been making sure that Kyle Korver hasn't gotten tons of open looks. James has been doing the job against whomever he has been up against, Thompson has been a force in the post against Al Horford and Jeff Teague just looks lost trying to run the show even though he should have a favorable matchup against either a slowed down Irving or Iman Shumpert.
The ball just isn't making it over to Korver in the corner as much as it needs to, and his three-point shots have been extremely contested for the most part.
Don't consider it a shock that the Hawks have failed to get to 90 in either of their home games in this series. For live betting purposes, if you see much of what you saw in Games 1 and 2 in terms of locking down on the perimeter and daring Teague to win one-on-one battles up top, you know that the Cavaliers are going to walk away with this game.
DEFENDING LEBRON
We'll be the first ones to tell you that we hate what the Cavaliers are doing offensively at this point. The ball starts in the hand of James and often ends there as well. He took 22 of Cleveland's 76 shots in Game 2, and he was the direct distributor of 19 more looks, meaning over half of the shots taken in the game for Cleveland were either directly off of James' hands or just off of them.
Here's the big problem with this offense. Where are the points coming from when James isn't on the court? We know that there aren't going to be many stretches of this game when "The King" isn't out there, but Cleveland was +20 with James on the court and -8 without him in Game 2, and he wasn't on the court for a total of just nine minutes for the whole game.
Over the course of the last 2:45 of the game, all of which James was on the bench, the Cavaliers didn't score a single point, and they only got one shot closer to the basket than 23 feet.
Sure, that was in garbage time, but it could be a problem if anything comes up with James, whether it be foul trouble, a minor injury, fatigue setting in, or whatever.
The only concern whatsoever that we have about the Cavaliers is what happens if James can't be on the court. You know when he isn't in there that you absolutely have to bet on the Hawks in live betting, even though you know that that probably means hedging out of that bet as soon as the next commercial break comes up and James is set to come back in the game.
BookMaker will have the spread for this Sunday soiree the night before the game. Now you can wager in-game while the action unfolds with BookMaker's live betting option.
BookMaker offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook! The showdown between the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers will start at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 24, 2015, at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH. The contest will be broadcast on TNT.
