How about that! Hawks move up!

[Gray Mule]

By simply staying home, doing nothing since their last game, Hawks have move up twice.

From 5th place to 4th place  yesterday.  Today, they are 3rd in the east!

We're not gaining any on Cleveland because they continue to beat up on everyone but some

of the others bunched together in the east have lost since Atlanta's last game.

Will this Hawk team hit the floor running and gunning like they did in their last game or will

they be so rusty from their layoff that they sleepwalk for three quarters as they have been

known to do recently?  They way they opened our last game was awesome!   Let's hope they

do that again tonight!

WAKE UP AND GO ATL !!

[Guest]

Ohhhhh, so as these other 'juggernaut' teams like the Bulls, Heat, Pacers, etc. started catching up with us in games-played, they start to fall in the standings?

Shocking!

I've been standing on this tiny soapbox all season and it's finally starting to come to fruition.

[Dnice]

Screw you Wavericks, bout time Cleveland gets the 10th loss.

[benhillboy]

45 minutes ago, Dnice said:

Screw you Wavericks, bout time Cleveland gets the 10th loss.

Bless their heart, they tried.  I knew they were done when it went to OT.  

Now if the Cavs beat the Spurs tomorrow the #1 seed is out of the question for us.  I got the Spurs by 5.5 though.  Luckily Pop won't hold any grudges against Bud  for the lame wave and help little bro out.

[BigDog90]

Hawks will probably finish the season 2nd. Worse case they'll get home court advantage. They're too good not to. 

[Lurker]

The experts would hate hearing this, but honestly none of the veteran eastern teams that will likely be in the playoffs have the personnel to seriously challenge healthy Cleveland in a playoff series. None of them.

The only real shot for any of them is winning both of their first two series (if they aren't facing Cleveland in the second round) as fast as they can while by an act of God another team is giving Cleveland a full seven game series that is difficult in the second round.

The five that I'm referring to are Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Toronto, and Indiana.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

The "experts" want Chicago to be that 2nd team real bad.  But until they prove to be a dominant home team, or an above average road team, it's not happening.

 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, kg01 said:

I've been standing on this TINY????soapbox all season and it's finally starting to come to fruition.

That soapbox is as big as Mount Everest.

[Gray Mule]

HAWKS CHOOSE SLEEPWALK MODE !!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

.... and we're still in 3rd place and .5 games out of 2nd.

Why?

Because those other teams are just like us.

[Lurker]

42 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Because those other teams are just like us.

Ding ding!

The eastern conference has one elite team and that's it. Again it's so obvious that there are no other elite teams they'd be better off canning the regular eastern playoffs and playing a few consolation prize series before everyone other than the top seed can go home for the offseason in this conference.

And the funny part of it, none of the vet Eastern teams are really even close to having the personnel to outlast healthy Cleveland in the playoffs. It's the younger teams that are the closest but aren't going to compete this season. New York and Milwaukee (if Monroe is taken out of the lineup).

[TheNorthCydeRises]

3 hours ago, Lurker said:

Ding ding!

The eastern conference has one elite team and that's it. Again it's so obvious that there are no other elite teams they'd be better off canning the regular eastern playoffs and playing a few consolation prize series before everyone other than the top seed can go home for the offseason in this conference.

And the funny part of it, none of the vet Eastern teams are really even close to having the personnel to outlast healthy Cleveland in the playoffs. It's the younger teams that are the closest but aren't going to compete this season. New York and Milwaukee (if Monroe is taken out of the lineup).

So the question is, what is the liklihood that Cleveland goes into the playoffs healthy?

Answer:  not likely

And that's why you play everything out.

[Jody23]

30 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

So the question is, what is the liklihood that Cleveland goes into the playoffs healthy?

Answer:  not likely

And that's why you play everything out.

Why is it likely that the Cavs are not healthy come playoff time?  And I certainly hope the Hawks aren't banking on the Cavs having poor health to have a shot because that's not a winners mentality.

[BigDog90]

1 hour ago, Jody23 said:

Why is it likely that the Cavs are not healthy come playoff time?  And I certainly hope the Hawks aren't banking on the Cavs having poor health to have a shot because that's not a winners mentality.

Cavs weren't healthy last playoffs and they handled the Hawks. 

[MaceCase]

1 hour ago, Jody23 said:

Why is it likely that the Cavs are not healthy come playoff time?  And I certainly hope the Hawks aren't banking on the Cavs having poor health to have a shot because that's not a winners mentality.

I believe he's referring to the extensive injury histories of Irving, Shumpert, Varejao and Love plus of course they have a 31 year old LeBron leading the team in minutes.  Beyond that, even if fully healthy all it takes for the Cavs to be vulnerable is for LeBron to show that he's human.  Any of the other top teams in the East have a chance to beat them if they find the right combination of scheme and defender to slow him down or he just picks the wrong time of year to have a slump.   Nobody else on that roster really scares anyone despite their talent. 

[AHF]

12 hours ago, MaceCase said:

I believe he's referring to the extensive injury histories of Irving, Shumpert, Varejao and Love plus of course they have a 31 year old LeBron leading the team in minutes.  Beyond that, even if fully healthy all it takes for the Cavs to be vulnerable is for LeBron to show that he's human.  Any of the other top teams in the East have a chance to beat them if they find the right combination of scheme and defender to slow him down or he just picks the wrong time of year to have a slump.   Nobody else on that roster really scares anyone despite their talent. 

I think the way I think about this is most teams need a combination of skill and luck to win a championship.  In the East, the Cavs are one injury away from a fail state.  If everything is going their way, they are going to be nigh impossible for anyone to beat but the Lakers with Shaq (first team All-NBA), Kobe (first team All-NBA), Malone (13/9) and Payton (14/6) looked like they were ready to roll the East for a ship as well, coming off 5 straight years of Western Conference domination including 3 LA titles and convincing wins over the Spurs and others in the West.