The Cleveland Cavaliers ousted the Atlanta Hawks 97-89 in a hard-fought Game 1 victory, setting the tempo for what should be an exciting series. Here’s what we learned that will dictate the rest of the Eastern Conference Finals:
1) Atlanta's defense is entirely focused on stopping LeBron James
With Kevin Love out and Kyrie Irving playing hurt, Cleveland has had to rely on LeBron James to carry most of the offense. Atlanta's defensive game plan was to make life as difficult as possible for James by having all five guys on the floor focus mostly on him and less on their man. It seems as though Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer wants to limit LeBron's scoring and force everyone else to best them.
2) J.R. Smith knows Kyle Korver can't guard him
Smith gave the Cavs a big spark off the bench with 28 points, and they'll need him to produce like that every game with their injury issues. Almost all of his points - and shots - came when Korver was guarding him as Smith got extremely aggressive when he identified the mismatch.
Budenholzer did what he could to throw different defenders at Smith, but he was already on fire because of the easy shots he got with Korver on him. Expect the Hawks to put someone more athletic on Smith for the remainder of the series, but if the Cavs can create this mismatch, expect Smith to exploit it.
3) Atlanta doesn't have the offensive firepower to match Cleveland
The Hawks used the energy from their home crowd at the beginning of the game to grab a double-digit lead, but Cleveland was able to respond with a run of their own. However, when the Cavs went on a run of their own in the second half, Atlanta wasn't able to answer and couldn't get back into the game because of that.
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