Hawks VS Celtics (Game 5)

Hawks Lead Series 3-2

When Isaiah Thomas scores only 7 points for the Celtics, you have to find other options. The Hawks played great defense as they surrounded Isaiah Thomas. They wouldn't let the guard get a shot off. Since nobody else was willing to make plays, the Hawks just continued to swarm Thomas. While Thomas suffered from an ankle injury, he said that he will play in game 6.

As for the Hawks offense. It was great. 5 players had at least 10 points. 12 players had at least 2 points. They shared the ball so well as they ended with 30 assists on the night. They also won the rebounding and defensively, they forced 20 turnovers on the Celtics. They had 19 fastbreak points as well. The Celtics defense was scrambled, which was odd because the Celtics are a great defensive team. They destroyed the Celtics

The Hawks just need to keep up this intensity going into Boston. If they can keep it up, they should be looking at a win. On the other hand, the Celtics are looking at elimination next game. But I have confidence that Brad Stevens will find a way to stop the Hawks and get points up on the board. He always seems to be able to do it.

Hawks VS Celtics (Game 3)

Hawks Lead Series 2-1

Last night was Isaiah's night. Isaiah Thomas came out and won the game as he finished with 42 points. The Hawks couldn't seem to match it, but could've they won the game?

The Hawks were brutal from 3-point range. They couldn't get a 3-pointer to fall. They were 2-17 in the1st half. That was their big problem, they wouldn't stop shooting them. They took 36 threes and only made 9 of them. And it wasn't like they were taking a lot of open shots either, they took a lot of contested ones, which was very strange for this Hawks team. When the 3 isn't falling you have to take it inside.

Atlanta Hawks - 3-point Shot Chart - www.nba.com/stats

They Hawks did a great job fixing this in the second half though. They finished the game with 52 points in the paint which is how they made their comeback.

Evan Turner was a big reason for the Hawks win. He had 17 points, 7 assists, and 5 steals as he filled the starting role for Avery Bradley in the game. But that wasn't the only lineup change that really lead to the Celtics win. They also put Jae Crowder at the 4 to guard Millsap and Amir Johnson at the 5 to guard Al Horford. This proved to be a great move as Millsap and Horford had a combined total of 16 points. They really took away the Hawks advantage that they had over the Celtics. The defensive effort really lead to the Celtics win.

Overall, Isaiah Thomas just had a really good night. He was very aggressive, realizing that his team needed him to produce. This ultimately lead to the a Celtics win. The combination of the defense and offense from the Celtics was just too much for the Hawks and you have to really credit Brad Stevens and the great job he on making changes.

Hawks VS Celtics (Game 1)

Hawks Lead Series 1-0

This game was a tale of 2 halves. Boston lost the first half, Atlanta lost the second. After watching this whole game, I realized that this was going to be an interesting series.

If you take a look at the first half, the Celtics played very poorly. Jae Crowder shot just 1-10 from the floor and Isaiah Thomas shot just 2-8. The team shot just 23.1% from the field, 12.5% from 3, and ended the half with just 34 points. They also had no fastbreak points! Defensively, the Celtics seemed late on every defensive rotation, the help side was always late, and they gave up 26 points in the paint.

Boston's 1st half - shot chart - www.nba.com/stats

As for the Hawks, their big men dominated. Horford, Millsap, and Bazemore had a combined 31 points. Boston's big men were just too slow to react to the guards and the bigs of the Hawks. Jeff Teague was doing a wonderful job of making the extra pass to find the big man off the high pick and roll that Millsap and Horford thrive in. The Hawks were doing great.

The second half came around and the Celtics did a great job of defending the pick and roll. Everyone was on the same page. Crowder and Thomas stepped up their game and the Celtics picked up their percentages. They shot 50% from the field and 47.4% from deep in the second half. The big thing that brought them back into the game was transition. The Celtics went from having no fastbreak points in the 1st half to having 15 in the 2nd.

As for the Hawks, their bench couldn't convert in the second half and Korver was just brutal. He has 0-7 from 3 on the game. They were well defended, but the Hawks just didn't get back in transition. What won the Hawks the game was their late game defense. They made sure that every shot was contested and defended the ball handler really well. They executed in the last few minutes which got them the win.

While the Celtics lost, if they had a different 1st half, it could've been a much different game. I am very excited for this series as it continues and I think this could come down down to an amazing game 7. It will really depend on who wins, Atlanta's frontcourt or Boston's backcourt.

All-Star Saturday Night Breakdown

By TonyTheTiger - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29372049

All-Star Saturday Night is one of my most favorite nights of the year. It's entertainment at it's best. You have the dunk contest, three point contest, and the skills competition along with things in between for our amusement. I've decided to breakdown every event from All-Star Saturday Night so everybody can see how every player participated and what their outcome means.

First off, it just didn't feel right when we started off with the Skills competition. I was very disappointed that there was no Shooting Stars competition. That was such a fun event. I felt like, once the first half court was made, that is when All-Star Saturday Night officially began. In case you don't know what the Shooting Stars event was, there is a video on it below. Anyways, onto the Skills competition...

The Skills Challenge had a different format this year as the "bigs" went up against the "smalls", the smalls being guards and the bigs being F/Cs. I'll breakdown each participant's performance below.

• Jordan Clarkson had a tough time as he was out in the first round. He wasn't that fast dribbling and did absolutely horrible in the passing section of the competition missing all 3 passes. He let C.J. McCollum get the layup before him and Clarkson was out before he even got to put up a shot as sharpshooter C.J. made his first shot. Clarkson isn't the most talented guard as you could see in the competition even though he is a dynamic scorer.
• Emanuel Mudiay struggled in this competition as he went up against Isaiah Thomas. He ended up losing because he couldn't get the passing as he missed all 3 tries while Thomas got it on the first. Mudiay then came down and lost control of the ball. By the time Mudiay made it to the 3-point shot, Thomas had already made the shot on his second attempt. Mudiay might have had a better shot if he was able to make the pass on his first try, but considering how this guy averages quite a bit of turnovers per game, maybe that is why he struggled with the passing station.
• Draymond Green did pretty well in this contest, though he didn't make it past the first round. He zoomed through the dribbling course and made the pass on his first try. He then did the layup with ease but failed to make a three pointer as he clearly rushed the first one and it was flat. He then missed the second and Karl-Anthony Towns made his before Green could get up another shot. However, Green had given us a look at his guard like skills for a big man and they were impressive to say the least.
• Anthony Davis really took it easy in the contest going pretty slow throughout the whole thing. He couldn't seem to get the three point shot to fall either as DeMarcus Cousin got the shot before he could. Davis looked really tired and slow in the game and if you looked at his face, he looked like he had been a victim of fatigue.
• DeMarcus Cousins had a big disadvantage in this competition. He was probably the slowest one out their. He was no match for Karl-Anthony Towns' speed and Cousins isn't the best ball handler. While we didn't see that much skill from him in the passing as he really couldn't get on pass though, we did get to see Cousins' range as he did hit a clutch three against Davis.
• C.J. McCollum did great in the first round as he went through the competition with ease and hit his first 3. The second round was a different story. He lost the ball through the dribbling course to start it and couldn't catch up with Isaiah Thomas. It is clear that he may be a sharpshooter, but McCollum could work on his dribbling and passing a little more.
• Isaiah Thomas was amazing in this competition. He was so speedy through the dribbling course and he never missed a pass at the passing station. In the final he sped past Towns to get his layup first. In the other rounds, he hit the 3-pointer easily. Of course, when he went against Towns in the finale, he couldn't make the 3-pointer. Isaiah Thomas really showed the world just how talented he was though.
• Karl-Anthony Towns was a beast as he lead the bigs to the win. He showed off his speed dribbling and gave the most effort out of all of the contestants. Towns made it to the end and shot the 3 well enough to win. He is a really talented big man and like Green he shows guard like skills with his passing ability. It was a joy to see Towns in this competition.

The 3-point contest was cool to see as the Splash Brothers took on the rest of the contestants. Let's take a look at how they all did

• J.J. Redick started off great. He hit his first 5. Then he cooled off. Last year if you remember, Redick kept stepping on the line so they didn't count. Well this year, he made sure he was behind the line. Redick started to get tired and that is probably a result of how much jump he has on his shot. Redick tried to win in the tie breaker to get into the final round, but he was taken down by Devin Booker. He really isn't made for the contest because of the jump he has to his shot.
• James Harden just isn't made for this contest. He never seems to be able to just set up and hit shots. Honestly, he can't seem to make them consistently in this contest and he is more of an in game shooter. Nevertheless, I was surprised that Harden did as well as he did.
• Kris Middleton did horrible in this contest. He just couldn't make that many shots. If looked at his shot, it seemed really off center. I was disappointed that Bosh wasn't in the contest, instead we got Middleton who didn't perform well in the contest at all.
• Kyle Lowry shot the ball flat and strong in the contest. That is why he had such a hard time getting shots to fall. He kept hitting back rim. Towards the end, he got tired and started shooting short. It just wasn't that great of a contest for Lowry.
• Devin Booker came out with the jitters. He started off poorly but ended great. This kid is going to be the next Steph Curry in the league. He is a great shooter and he will win this contest sometime in his career. He was nothing short of amazing. I was really impressed with how he played.
• Stephen Curry played real well, hitting the clutch 3 to get him to qualify for the final. He did even better in the final, he just couldn't compete with Klay's 27. The thing I liked about Curry is he didn't really jump on his shot. It was a great set-shot.
• Klay Thompson lit it up just like Curry did last year. He had 27 in the final round. Klay is such a great shooter and if you think about it, it's kind of scary to think that both him and Curry are on the same team. Both of them are too good of shooter.

Now if you know all-star weekend, you know that the dunk contest is usually where it's at. And it was true for this year. The contest was thrilling. Let's take a look at how the players did.

• Will Barton was really disappointing. He just couldn't make the dunks that LaVine and Gordon could make. He just can seem to get enough air on his dunks.
• Andre Drummond was pretty disappointing too. I thought he was going to do great in the contest. When he brought Steve Nash onto the court, I was expecting something really special, but it wasn't that great of a dunk.
• Aaron Gordon was great. He had the style. He did great, especially for a two foot jumper. His under-the-legs dunk was the dunk of the night by far. What he did was beyond amazing. He really set the bar high. In fact, he might have set it a little too high as he ran out of dunks towards the end and couldn't find something really creative like his other dunks. But that is besides the point. Gordon put on a show, a great show for the whole NBA nation. Even though he didn't win, he did some amazing dunks that left my jaw dropping from a dunk contest that hasn't been that good for years.
• Zach LaVine was just as great as Gordon was. The two dueled it out with some amazing dunks. Just when you saw one of Gordon's spectacular dunks, LaVine would could out with something spectacular as well. He gave us an alley-oop, between the legs, and a windmill FT line dunks, dunks that have never been done in an NBA dunk contest before from that far out. While Gordon had the better dunk, Zach LaVine's performance was just as amazing as he came out to win the contest. When Zach was handed the award, he said that Gordon was the dunk contest too. Not to mention, after the dunk contest, LaVine said that the dunk contest win was a win for his old head coach that recently passed away, Flip Saunders. Flip was the won who drafted LaVine and LaVine said that "He's the one that always believed in me and drafted me!". LaVine and Gordon's performance was completely amazing and I'm still in awe about that contest.

As you can see, All-Star Saturday night is one of the best event of the year. It is sad though, that it is once a year, and we have to wait another year to see the next one. But that, it was makes it so amazing. It doesn't happen that often. And it doesn't happen that often when we get to see an All-Star Saturday night as great as this. As Kenny Smith always says, "it's over ladies and gentlemen, it's over". Now we wait, til next year.

Cavaliers VS Celtics (game 1)

Final Score: Cavs won 113-100



Cavs lead series 1-0

It was close throughout the first half. The Cavs won the game in the 3rd quarter though. Although, it's hard to win against the Cavs with your best player coming off the bench. Take a look at the Cavs. Love, LeBron, and Irving had a combined total of 69 points, 13 assists, and 21 rebounds. That is 61% of their teams points, 68% of their teams assists, and 45.5% of their teams rebounds.

Kevin Love struggled in the first half but ended up with 19 points. Kyrie had a total of 30 and James had 20. The main thing that the Celtics have to do is take all three of these players out of the game. That is going to be hard to do and I don't think any team can do it. I would look for them to force the ball out of Irving's hands and into LeBron's hands. LeBron thinks he is the best ball handler on the floor. Lets be honest now, Irving is. LeBron had 5 turnovers in the game and Kyrie only had 1. If you have LeBron handle it he will turn the ball over. You really need to make sure Irving passes it off. Irving will take you one on one, while LeBron's iso is not nearly as good.

As for the Cavaliers, they need to get all three of the players involved like they were doing. I am okay with Kyrie in isolation because he can pass the ball and make shots for him so easily but LeBron isn't that great of a ball handler and I would not want him in Iso. Sure if there is a miss-match, post up or Iso. But other than that, just run through the plays. The most successful teams get everyone involved like the Spurs and Hawks for example. If you get everyone involved, you will win. It's that simple.