ATLANTA — The Hawks announced their arrival with a 19-game winning streak, placed three on the All-Star team behind the NBA’s Coach of the Year and yet, Atlanta is the unknown entering the Eastern Conference Finals.
That’s just the way these guys like it.
“It is the team concept,” said Dominique Wilkins, the team’s TV color analyst who was on traded from the last Hawks team (1994) to entered the playoffs with the No. 1 seed in the conference. “They know that they rely on each other if they’re going to be successful (and) that one or the other can’t do it by themselves. They rely on a committee to get it done and they’ve done it better than anybody in the league this year.”
The Hawks host LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the conference finals on Wednesday at Phillips Arena, once a veritable empty barn but now a rocking atmosphere with 17 sellouts in 2015.
Cavaliers coach David Blatt called one of the lopsided losses to the Hawks this season, 127-98 in Cleveland, embarrassing. A month earlier in November, the Hawks blasted the Cavs at Quicken Loans Arena 127-94.
It’s safe to say the Cavaliers are a much different team in May, but the Hawks are essentially an identical outfit.
“I think it’s the players we have,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I think we’ve been able to put together a group of high character guys that it’s kind of in their hearts, in their guts. They play unselfishly, they care about each other. They do all of the things that go into having good chemistry and it’s just a credit to the players that we have.”
Atlanta was 38-44 in Budenholzer’s first season and won in 2014-15 with balance, including a 35-3 stretch after starting the season 5-5. Six players averaged double figures in scoring, but none eclipsed 17 points per game.
Budenholzer spent two decades working at the knee of Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs, a team which has had James’ number throughout his career. For most of the 2014 NBA Finals, San Antonio let James launch jumpers but cut off his attacking penetration.
James averaged 23.7 points, 5.7 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals in three games against the Hawks this season. He shot 53.1 percent from the field.
“They’re a great team, they’ve been a great team all year,” James said. “They’ve been the No. 1 seed in our conference all year for a reason.”
The 11-year veteran was dominant in the conference semifinals series against Chicago, averaging 27.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 8.8 assists in his usual adaptive chameleon-like role for a Cleveland team without Kevin Love and playing with a limited Kyrie Irving on the point.
“Obviously, it starts with LeBron,” said Hawks shooting guard Kyle Korver, who made 49.2 percent of his 3-point tries in the regular season but made 29 percent in the conference semifinals against the Washington Wizards.
Hawks point guard Jeff Teague was inconsistent in the semifinals series against the Wizards but is capable of carrying the offense when scoring lulls strike.
“We don’t have a superstar or whatever, but we come up big in big moments every night,” Teague said.