The Atlanta Hawks are considered one of the NBA's rising teams, as evidenced by consecutive playoff appearances for the first time in 10 years. The Hawks, however, were easily swept in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who spent four games exposing Atlanta's numerous flaws and weaknesses. The Hawks are approaching a critical time for their franchise, with Mike Bibby a free agent and third-year forward and former lottery pick Marvin Williams seemingly without a role.
Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins, the team's vice president of basketball, said the Hawks need two key components to challenge, Boston, Orlando and Cleveland for Eastern Conference supremacy.
Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.
Progress looks like this. Atlanta, long a laughingstock of the NBA, made the playoffs last season. This year, the Hawks advanced to the second round. Progress, right?
Well, from my seat it doesn't look like a whole lot of progress. More than offering new hope for tomorrow, the struggle against Miami followed by obliteration at the hands of Cleveland has pointed out Atlanta's specific deficiencies. The shortcomings are intrinsic to this roster, the problems part-and-parcel with the strengths. I fail to see how the Hawks can get much better from here.
Facing an 0-3 series deficit, the Hawks knew they had to come out swinging against the Cavaliers on Monday night, and to their credit, they actually did ... for a quarter or so.
Eventually the Cavs caught up, and even though this was by far the most competitive game of the series, the Cavs still cruised to an 84-74 victory, the eighth time in eight playoff games the Cavs won by double digits.
Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.
The Cavaliers are making a solid case for the NBA to institute a mercy rule. Not only have they won all six of their playoff games by double-digits, they've done so without allowing an opponent to score more than 85 points even once. They led the Hawks by 30 heading into the final quarter before finally taking their foot off the gas -- Cleveland's reserves gave back 10 points in the final quarter before the Cavs won by "only" 20.
Had Mike Brown allowed his starters to play the final quarter, it's possible the Cavs could have challenged Denver's 58-point margin in Game 4 of their first-round series with the Hornets, especially considering the Hawks lost Joe Johnson to a severely sprained ankle in the third quarter.
It's been five months since the Hawks last beat the Cavaliers -- their lone win in four tries in the regular season was on Dec. 13, 2008 -- but after watching the Cavs absolutely destroy the visitors from Atlanta in the first two games of the second round, it may as well be five years.
Cleveland won Thursday's game 105-85, but that doesn't even begin to convey how much they dominated the Hawks. The Cavs had a 30-point lead entering the fourth quarter, at which point Mike Brown pulled all of his starters. The Cavs improved to 6-0 in the postseason, winning every game by double-digits while holding their opponent to 90 points or fewer each time.
Cavaliers 105, Hawks 85: Recap | Box Score Cavs Lead 2-0 | Next Game: Saturday @ Atlanta, 8 PM ET
Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.
The Nuggets have been the most impressive team in the West to this point in the playoffs. They crushed the Hornets so badly that Byron Scott may lose his job and the roster might be overhauled before next season. And now, after a Tuesday night Game 2 victory over the Mavericks, Denver finds itself halfway to the conference finals.
Based on who they've played, though, should we really be considering them as a candidate for one of the best teams in the conference? All signs point to NO.
The Cleveland Cavaliers beat Detroit so quickly and decisively in the first round of the NBA playoffs, they got bored waiting for their next victim to arrive.
They better have some good books to read during their next break. It's going to be another long one.
The Cavs, after waiting nine days to start this second-round matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, wasted no time setting the tone Tuesday night, all but announcing that they will be packing their own brooms when they go to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4. This will be one-stop shopping.
Perhaps inspired by watching a pair of road teams steal home court advantage on Monday, the Hawks came into Tuesday's game in Cleveland with no fear -- and for at least the first two quarters, the game looked like it'd probably go to whichever team got hot near the end.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, the first two quarters was all the time the Cavs needed to shake off nine days of rust, as Cleveland's modest five-point lead at halftime exploded into a 27-point lead by the final buzzer.
Cavaliers 99, Hawks 72: Recap | Box Score | Scoreboard Cavs Lead 1-0 | Next Game: Thursday @ Cleveland, 7 PM ET
After the Hawks forced the eventual champion Celtics to seven games in the first round of the playoffs a season ago, they had matured enough this year to win a Game 7 and advance to the second round for the first time in 10 years. We'll find out in a hurry if they'll be simply happy to get there, or if they can actually provide a challenge to Mr. MVP and the only unbeaten team left in the post-season: the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Making their first appearance in the second round since 1994, it took the Nuggets the entire first quarter to get warmed up -- but once they did, the Mavericks never had a chance.
The Atlanta Hawks are considered one of the NBA's rising teams, as evidenced by consecutive playoff appearances for the first time in 10 years. The Hawks, however, were easily swept in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who spent four games exposing Atlanta's numerous flaws and weaknesses. The Hawks are approaching a critical time for their franchise, with Mike Bibby a free agent and third-year forward and former lottery pick Marvin Williams seemingly without a role.
Facing an 0-3 series deficit, the Hawks knew they had to come out swinging against the Cavaliers on Monday night, and to their credit, they actually did ... for a quarter or so. 
It's been five months since the Hawks last beat the Cavaliers -- their lone win in four tries in the regular season was on Dec. 13, 2008 -- but after watching the Cavs absolutely destroy the visitors from Atlanta in the first two games of the second round, it may as well be five years.
The Cleveland Cavaliers beat Detroit so quickly and decisively in the first round of the NBA playoffs, they got bored waiting for their next victim to arrive.
Perhaps inspired by watching a pair of road teams steal home court advantage on Monday, the Hawks came into Tuesday's game in Cleveland with no fear -- and for at least the first two quarters, the game looked like it'd probably go to whichever team got hot near the end. 
