Let’s go streaking!

It’s Inspiration Night at the Highlight Factory, and with gospel music all abound, an appreciative Friday Night crowd hopes to stomp and sing one particular player’s praises when the Atlanta Hawks face the Cleveland Cavaliers (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Ohio).

Round of applause, Kyle Korver! Congratulations, you beat them odds! By raining one more triple from the heavens tonight Kyle will have an NBA record, consecutive games with at least one three-pointer, all to his lonesome.

While Ky has indeed been jelly for 89 games and counting, lost amid the hullabaloo about The Threak is that the 32-year-old is relied upon like never before (career-high 33.5 minutes per game) and is rewarding his team by shooting the lights out almost everywhere across the floor. Korver is shooting not only 51.8% on threes (3^rd in NBA), but 55.3% on twos and 93.8% on free throws, making the current sole member of this 50-50-90 club the league’s leader in effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage.

Buoyed by six threes and a season-high 23 points in upending the Clippers on Wednesday night (he loves L.A., as he scored 22 against the Lakers last month), Korver’s 12.4 points per game are the most since 2006-07. Also, with the boost in playing time, he’s besting his career-highs in assists (2.8 APG) and nearing his highs in rebounds and steals (4.1 RPG and 1.1 SPG, most since 2004-05).

Kyle’s ability to be a threat at multiple spots along the floor, not just along the three-point line, allows the Hawks (10-10) to weave him through defenses and punish opponents that don’t keep up or fail to switch. His 9.6 PPG off of catch-and-shoot opportunities places him 3^rd in the league behind Ryan Anderson (11.4) and Klay Thompson (10.3), while only Andre Iguodala boasts a higher field-goal percentage among the league’s top catch-and-shooters.

One could argue Jeff Teague never would have made it to the upper pantheon of the East’s point guard crop without Korver’s proficiency. Further, the attention Korver demands on offense makes life in the paint and around the elbows easier for Al Horford and Paul Millsap. Aside from LeBron James and the occasionally-available Dwyane Wade, Horford and Millsap are the only pair of teammates in the NBA averaging over six field goals per contest while individually shooting above 50 percent.

This dynamic duo will want to go hard in the paint (until they pass out…) whenever they’re matched up against Anderson Varejao, who gives up a league-high 62.4 FG% at the rim (minimum 5.0 opponent FG at-rim attempts per game) when he’s defending it, or Tristan Thompson (56.0 opponent FG% at-rim, 10^th highest in NBA). They need to go straight up and avoid putting the ball on the floor, however, as Sideshow Bob is particularly crafty at stripping the ball away (team-leading 1.3 steals per game), and players like Kyrie Irving and Alonzo Gee thirst for easy fastbreak points off of turnovers.

While Atlanta seeks to rejoin the sad shortlist of Leastern Conference teams with winning records, Cavs Head Coach Mike Brown hopes to do a little streaking as well. He’s especially encouraged by his frontline after his Cavs (6-12; 1-9 on the road) cooled off red-hot Denver on Wednesday night for just their first two-game winning streak this season. Brown hopes the trio of Andrew Bynum, Tristan Thompson, and Varejao are starting to turn the corner.

Careful with his fragile center all season, it seems Brown finally took the shackles off his feet so he could dance. Against the Bulls on Saturday, Bynum was granted a season-high 30 minutes and rewarded Brown’s patience with season highs of 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks, pestering Joakim Noah into a 2-for-10 outing. He got a useful spell against Denver courtesy of Varejao, who came off the bench to contribute 18-and-13 plus 3 blocks in 28 minutes against the Nuggets, as well as starting power forward Thompson, who cranked out a wild 17-and-21 (career-high rebounds)-plus-3 in the same game.

Having so many bigs actively crashing the boards, clogging the lanes, and finishing inside will take a ton of the pressure off of Irving and his backcourt associates, who lead the league’s third-worst shooting team (41.8 team FG%; league-low 52.8 FG% within 5 feet of the rim). It’s also helping Cleveland’s defense against driving point guards like Ty Lawson, Denver’s leading scorer who was rendered into a purely distributional role while shooting just 1-for-13.

Still, team defense remains a challenge for Cleveland, and Brown is trying to impress upon his budding star guard that out-volume-shooting your opponent isn’t sufficient for a team’s defensive needs. To be sure, Uncle Drew’s shooting chart is looking atrocious right now. Irving (20.8 PPG) takes the 3^rd most shots in the league while shooting just 40.4% from the floor. Exceptions include mid-range shots at the wings (49.3 2FG%) and the left perimeter (53.9 3FG%). But the real problem for Cleveland remains on the other end of the floor, with Irving’s Cavalier approach to disrupting opponents’ passing games. Opponents are ringing up 25.3 assists per game on the Cavs, and only Philly (giving up 110.8 PPG, with three more overtime sessions thrown in) gives up more.

Mistakingly thinking he could be a voice of truth on this team, second-year guard Dion Waiters privately exerted his frustrations about his teammates early in the season. He reportedly cited perceived “buddy ball” tendencies among Irving and Thompson, and a double-standard by the coaching staff when it comes to defensive accountabilities, specifically coaches giving him flak while casting crowns on Irving.

Yet Waiters continued to get lost in his own defensive role, and Brown has been searching for weeks for a replacement shooting guard in the starting lineup to pair with Irving. Brown went from C.J. Miles (can you believe he’s an eight-year vet already?), to undrafted rookie Matthew Dellavedova, to first-round prospect Sergey Karasev, before settling back on Miles, who is using his 6’6” height to greater effect while shooting a little more reliably than Waiters on the inside without turning the ball over.

To keep the Hawks offense stagnant, Cleveland needs to limit Korver’s perimeter touches while turning Kyle’s teammates into a bunch of Little Jack Horners with Christmas Pie. Atlanta is among the most proficient shot-jackers on corner threes (6.6 per game, 6^th in NBA) but is the only team shooting below 35 percent among the league’s ten most proficient corner shooters (34.8%, 21^st in NBA). If the Hawks with the ball in the corner aren’t Korver (54.8 corner 3FG%, 6^th in NBA), dare them to shoot (all other Hawks 27.3 corner 3FG%) and hope they don’t pull out a plum.

Go Kyle! And Go Hawks!

~lw3