Cavaliers can sweep Hawks in NBA Eastern Conference Finals
by Scott —May 25, 2015 in All Sports, NBA
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Atlanta Hawks – Game 4 (Series: 3-0 Cleveland)
Tip-off: Tuesday, May 26th 2015 at 8:30pm ET
Venue: Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia
Watch: TNT
I don’t think many people predicted the Cleveland Cavaliers would sweep the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, but it looks like that’s going to happen. The Hawks have had no answer for Lebron James and the beat-up Cavaliers.
Atlanta may have had a historic regular season, but they’re falling apart at the worst possible time.
Kyle Korver has been ruled out for the rest of the playoffs. Al Horford was ejected in the 2nd quarter of game 3, but I doubt we’ll see any further action taken by the league, which means Horford will be ready to play in the Hawks first elimination game.
The Hawks could have used Horford in the 2H, as they fell in game 3 by just three points (114-111) in OT.
James was an absolute beast. He finished with another triple-double (37 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists). He also had 3 steals. He’s playing incredible basketball and it’s hard to imagine the Hawks finding an answer to stop the NBA’s best player.
DeMarre Carroll has been unable to limit James, despite the fact he’s one of the best defenders at SF.
Kevin Love hasn’t played in the series at all and Kyrie Irving hasn’t played in the last two games – yet the Cavaliers are still finding a way to beat the talented Hawks. Matthew Dellavedova, J.R. Smith and James Jones have provided good minutes off the bench.
Cavaliers vs. Hawks game 4 betting lines
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Bovada.lv will have lots of great props for this match-up before tip-off that you don’t want to miss.
- Money Line: Cavaliers (-357) vs. Hawks (+265)
- Point Spread: Cavaliers -8.5 vs. Hawks +8.5
- Game Total: Over 193.5 vs. Under 193.5
The bookies are clearly expecting heavy Cavaliers action by opening the point spread so high.
I can’t imagine the spread getting bigger, so you can wait to bet on the Cavs to see if you get a better line. If you want to bet on the Hawks, you’ll want to grab the current line. The over/under seems a little low and I believe we’ll see the total increase.
Starting line-ups
Cleveland Cavaliers:
- C: Timofey Mozgov
- PF: Tristan Thompson
- SF: Lebron James
- SG: Iman Shumpert
- PG: Matthew Dellavedova
Atlanta Hawks:
- C: Al Horford
- PF: Paul Millsap
- SF: DeMarre Carroll
- SG: Kent Bazemore
- PG: Jeff Teague
Game 4: Cavaliers vs. Hawks predictions
I really expected the Hawks to take game 3 after losing two in a row at home, but at this point the Hawks are reeling and it’s going to be tough to pick up a win in game 4. However, the point spread is huge and there’s definitely value on the Hawks at +8.5 points.
Jeff Teague has continued dominating at PG, as he had 30 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists in game 3. Horford was having the best game out of the Hawks players before being ejected. Horford finished with 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field.
Paul Millsap wasn’t great from the field, but he was 11 of 11 from the charity stripe and finished with 22 points and 9 rebounds in over 45 minutes. Kent Bazemore started for the Hawks, but he was largely ineffective in his 43 minutes of action.
Atlanta isn’t a team that can afford injuries, as they really don’t have a ton of depth outside of the starters.
The Cavaliers shot 41.2% (40 of 97) from the field and 38.9% (14 of 36) on 3-pointers.
Those aren’t great numbers, but the Hawks can’t afford players like Smith, Dellavedova and Iman Shumpert to score 15+ points apiece, which is exactly what happened in game 3. Atlanta can’t shutdown James, but they have to shutdown the role players.
The big men did a good job limiting Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov, but the guards need to play better defense or else the Hawks will get swept. With Korver out – the Hawks shouldn’t be attempting 30 3-pointers either like they did in game 3.
Atlanta have great big men that can pound down low, but they don’t seem to be taking advantage of that edge.
Cavaliers vs. Hawks game 4 over/under picks
This total is real low. The second game was really low scoring, but games 1 and 3 both had over 194+ points.
Atlanta aren’t playing any defense in this series and the only way they’re going to win is if they can outscore the Cavaliers, which means they’ll be throwing up plenty of 3-pointers again. Teague, Millsap and Horford will be tasked with doing most of the scoring.
Both teams barely shot over 40% from the field and less than 40% from beyond the arc in game 3 – yet the game still had plenty of points. I expect another high-paced game now that the Hawks are on the brink of being eliminated.