Can The Atlanta Hawks Win The East Over Cleveland Cavaliers?

The Atlanta Hawks will face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals starting Wednesday night for Game 1 at Philips Arena.  Atlanta and Cleveland are the top two seeds in the East and both teams have serious championship aspirations despite each city’s reputation for perennial playoff disappointment.  At the start of the 2013-14 NBA season, if someone were to have told me that this would be the matchup for the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals, I would have told that person he was crazy.

That all changed when Coach Bud came to Atlanta and the prodigal son returned to the shores of Lake Erie.  Cleveland was instantly a contending team in the East with the return of LeBron James.  Atlanta shocked the NBA by winning 60 games this regular season as many expected Atlanta to win closer to 45 or 50.  Cleveland looks to end a 51-year championship drought in Northern Ohio.  Atlanta looks to build on its best season in franchise history.

But since LeBron James has been the NBA’s best player for the last decade, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be the considered overwhelming favorites to come out of the East.  Can the overlooked Atlanta Hawks beat the Cavs and win the Eastern Conference this series?

Of course the Hawks can beat the Cavaliers.  These are two really good basketball teams.  This is the playoffs where literally anything can happen.  I know that this is a site dedicated to the Atlanta sports region, but the Hawks have more than a fair chance to ‘upset’ Cleveland.  The Hawks won the season series 3-1, including two pastings of the Cavs by 30+ point margins of victory.  Cleveland has definitely found their stride in recent months but Atlanta has been a matchup problem for the Cavs all season.  Not to mention, Atlanta has home court advantage over Cleveland so LeBron and company have to win at the Highlight Factory to have a shot at advancing.

Atlanta can just as easily attack the paint as Cleveland can let LeBron or Kyrie Irving takeover.  As talented as Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson are defensively down low for the Cavs, they are marginal offensive players at best.  Just like in the previous two playoff series for the Hawks, Atlanta’s big men are much quicker in transition than their opponent’s.  Mozgov and Thompson will tire chasing Al Horford, Paul Millsap, and DeMarre Carroll in extended minutes now that Kevin Love is out for the season.

In all fairness, both teams have had their share of injuries of late.  Besides Kevin Love’s shoulder problems, Kyrie Irving fought through a myriad of obvious pains in Cleveland’s series with the Bulls.  The whole reason for acquiring Mozgov was to replace the often-injured Anderson Varejao who has been out for the season for some time now.

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Atlanta has found a way to survive Thabo Sefolosha’s broken ankle in their perimeter defense.  DeMarre Carroll continues to play solid wing defense.  Kyle Korver and Kent Bazemore have risen to the occasion to make up for the season-ending injury to Thabo.

I know for a fact that we will see pundits say that the Atlanta Hawks have no chance to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in a best-of-seven series.  I expect to see many talking heads pick Cleveland to win in five.  But if there is one thing about the NBA I can’t stand is how everyone thinks that they already know what is going to happen.  Play the games.  Prove it on the court in a best-of-seven series.  Last time I checked, basketball is a team sport.  Cleveland might have two of the best players in the Association but I believe that the Atlanta Hawks are the better team, top to bottom.

Will the better team win the East this year?  Or will the best player(s) carry his/their team to the promised land?  We will just have to see how this exciting series unfolds.  One thing is for sure: this has been a great season of Hawks basketball and Atlanta has nothing to lose in the Eastern Finals because Cleveland is theoretically supposed to win anyway.  While living in the theoretical is fun sometimes, living in the real is far superior.  I’m looking forward to an outstanding Eastern Conference Finals.  May the best team win.  Let’s Go Hawks!