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The Hawks lost Korver for the rest of the season, the Cavs might have Irving back

The situation is already tough for Atlanta (losing 2-0), and now Korver got injured, which would bring even more problems to their already pretty sterile offense

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When Chicago's coach was asked before the beginning of the semifinal series of the East whether his team were a favorite against Cleveland considering Love's injury, and Smith's being suspended in the first two matches, Thibodeau said that any team who have LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in their lines can't not be a favorite. True, he was using reverse psychology before the series began, but the Cavs showed there was truth in his words by eliminating the Bulls in six matches, which brought them the Hawks in the final of the East.

Just like in the series with the Bulls, the Cavs came to this one as a bit of an outsider, but James showed the truth of the Bulls' coach's words in the first two duels against Atlanta. The Cleveland guys are now leading 2-0. And while their first match was a bit more difficult, the Cavs won the second one incredibly easy this Friday, even though Irving is still injured.

- How much does it mean to have LeBron James in the team? Do I really have to answer that? - the Cavs coach, David Blatt, was wondering.

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Carried on James's 13 points in the first period, the Cavs got five points advantage, 26-21, and that was the same advantage they took to the break, 54-49. However, the Cavs sped up in the rest of the match, and with the help of James, and the great defense that limited the Hawks to only 32% (7/22) points from the court, the Cavs got 18 points ahead, 84-66, which was more than enough to calmly end the match.

- We're not carried away with these two wins now. We'll be just as eager in the third as we were in the first two matches - James announced. He was only one rebound away from a triple-double effect, with 30 (10/22) points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.

James had a big help of J.R.Smith and his three pointers in the first match, but this time, it was Shumpert with his 16 (6/11) points, and Dellavedova, who covered for Irving, added 11 (4/13) points with six rebounds. Thompson also stood out with 15 rebounds and seven (2/6) points scored, outplaying Millsap for the second time now.

It was Thompson who made the Cavs win another rebound battle, 47-39, and how important that is for the coach Blatt is obvious from the fact that they have 10-0 ratio when they have more rebounds than their opponents in the playoff.

The Cavs got their recipe for success, and they'll try to cook it for the third time today. Their key is obviously the good defense (the second best in the playoff right now), and their rebounds, while James does more than half the job in the offense, what with his points, what with his game organization. His job could be made easier today if Irving comes back. He was at the practice yesterday, but he's still questionable for the match today.

- If he can play, he will. He's a very important part of our team, and this series isn't over yet - coach Blatt commented on Irving's state.

While the Cavs can hope that Irving will be ready, Atlanta don't have good news to look forward to after the second defeat in a row. Besides losing the game, the Hawks also lost Korver for the rest of the season (ankle injury), and that could make their already sterile offense even weaker.

- He's a big cog in our system, our concept. We'll really miss him a lot - coach Budenholzer commented.

Other than losing Korver, coach Bud is also struggling with the fact that Carroll is losing the battle with James in this series. A mitigating circumstance is the knee injury Demarre got in the first match, but if the Hawks want to make this series longer, Carroll, and the rest of the team, will have to do a much better job on James than they did in the first two duels where James had 30.5 points with 8.5 rebounds and assists per game.

- No doubt we have to guard him better. Both individually and as a team. We have to cover the assist lines, and be on his every shot. We knew that even before this series began, but I hope that, with certain experience we gained, we can fix all that in the third match - Atlanta coach said.

Besides having to raise the bar defensively, the Hawks will have to improve their offense significantly, too. Atlanta ended that last match with only 41% points from the court, and the most efficient individual was Schroder with 13 (6/11) points, while Korver added 12 (4/11), as well as Horford (5/8) and Teague (5/16).

- This is the playoff and you have to give more. You have to be more active in the offense, be tougher in the block, and have a much better execution - Budenholzer added. He's dealing with Horford's minor knee injury, as well, but for now, it's not that serious.

It's still not known who'll cover for Korver in this match, but there are signs it could be Bazemore who raised some eyebrows after the second duel by saying:

- I still think we're the better team, we just didn't show it yet.

Either way, Atlanta will have a tough job to do for sure, and the fact that James was in the 2-0 lead 14 times in the playoff, and passed through all 14 times, doesn't work in their favor.