Just like last season, the Eastern Conference finals will feature the top two seeds in the conference with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks set to fight for a spot in the NBA Finals. The Cavaliers enter the conference finals on the heels of a series victory over the Chicago Bulls in the second round. The Hawks, meanwhile, advanced to the franchise’s first Eastern Conference final appearance ever after winning a hard-fought series against the Washington Wizards. With the series all set to start this coming Wednesday, we took to the internet and gathered some of the earliest experts’ prediction for this series, which you can read below.
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Experts Predictions for Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Atlanta Hawks Series
Bleacher Report
Expert
Series Prediction
Alec Nathan
Cavs in 6
Just a few hours after Atlanta beat the Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference semifinal round, Bleacher Report released its own preview and prediction for the ensuing Cleveland-Atlanta conference final series.
[sc:NBA240banner ]Alec Nathan, a feature columnist for Bleacher Report, broke down the series into several discussion points. One of those is about the Cavs’ improved defense, which Nathan believes will be too much for Atlanta. While he thinks Atlanta’s three-point shooting can keep the Hawks afloat, he says that it will not be enough for them to counter LeBron James and company. In the end, Nathan selects the Cavs to win the series in six games and James the series’ MVP.
Zach Dillard of Fox Sports, meanwhile, believes that the superstar-less Atlanta Hawks will emerge victorious in the series. Dillard partly based his prediction on his belief that the Hawks have the best big men in the series in Al Horford and Paul Millsap. The duo presents quite a headache for Cleveland’s defense, as Horford and Millsap are skilled inside operators with decent mid-range games.
Horford led the Hawks in scoring and in rebounding in the Washington series, where he averaged 16.8 points on 50.0 percent field goal shooting and 9.8 baords per game. Millsap, on the other hand, averaged 15.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in that series. Cleveland has two solid rim protectors in Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson but they might not be that effective when defending against Atlanta’s pick-and-roll plays that involve the more agile tandem of Horford and Millsap. Dillard picks the Hawks to win in seven games. The Hawks are +175 to win the series.
Rant Sports
Expert
Series Prediction
Jerry Landry
Cavs in 5
Over at Rant Sports, Jerry Landry has the Cavaliers ending the series in five games. For Landry, LeBron James is all the Cavs need to put away Atlanta. Landry even thinks that James would average 35 points in the series. That’s saying a lot, considering that in three games played against Atlanta in the regular season, James averaged just 23.7 points. Thus far this postseason, James is averaging 25.3 points on 48.8 FG%.
NBA.com
Expert
Series Prediction
Steve Aschburner
Cavs in 6
Steve Aschburner, who’s been writing about the NBA since 1980, offers his take on the series in an insightful preview published on Saturday. One of the interesting points Aschburner has in the article is that the Cavs are almost all about LeBron James, while the Hawks take a “Musketeers approach”. According to Aschburner, it is because of James, why the Hawks, despite their four All-Stars, are viewed as the underdog in this series. And it is still because of James why Aschburner sees the Cavs not only winning the Eastern Conference final in six games, but also the NBA title as well.
Sporting News
Expert
Main Header 2
Sean Deveney
Cavs in 6
Adi Joseph
Hawks in 7
Lastly, we have the inputs of the two NBA experts from Sporting News, Sean Deveney and Adi Joseph. For Deveney, the main matchup in the Cavs-Hawks series is the one between James and DeMarre Carrol. He notes that Carroll is 4-0 in his head-to-head matchups with James. Carroll may not have the hardware James has, but the Hawks’ swingman is having quite a postseason. Carroll leads the Hawks in scoring thus far these playoffs, averaging 17.1 points per game. That said, Deveney still favors Cleveland to end the series in six games, mainly because the Cavs have the two best players in the series in James and Kyrie Irving.
Joseph, on the other hand, has his money on the Hawks. He states that while it’s hard for him to bet against Cleveland, he sees the battered lineup of the Cavs as a big factor as to why he’s picking Atlanta to win in seven games. He also states that the Hawks balanced lineup will give the Cavs all sorts of problem. The Hawks have a talented frontcourt in Horford and Millsap and a backcourt (Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder), who could put the pressure on Irving. For Joseph, a team with that many contributors on offense is primed to defeat James and the rest of the Cavs.
