During the 4th quarter of the Hawks/Cavs game it seemed the Cavs had control of the game due to the play of J.R. Smith and LeBron James, but something happened during that quarter that would place a stamp on the entire series. DeMarre Carroll while pressing the issue on a fast break started his euro step between J.R. Smith and LeBron James and his knee exploded. The play looked so bad at first watch I thought either Smith or James fouled him, but after watching the replay it was clear as day that Carroll wasn’t touched and that his knee went left on him.
As of now the reports are stating he had a knee sprain, which after the MRI comes back will turn into an ACL or MCL possibly. Carroll is in a contract year and is currently playing lights out for the Hawks. He has been their leading scorer during the playoffs at 16.2 ppg during 13 games of course his average took a dip last night as he finished with 5 points before the injury, he’s also helped with averages of 6.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists. Besides how good Carroll has been on offense he’s even more important on defense as he always takes the task of guarding the opponent’s best wing player and in this series we all know that is LeBron James.
I know a lot of people in Atlanta believed the Hawks could shock the world and beat the Cavs, but folks in the other states didn’t get the same vibe. If Carroll is going to be slowed down it won’t help the Hawks chances. Defensive Stallworth Thabo Sefolosha is already out for the playoffs with a broken leg suffered by the NYPD in the sad Chris Copeland situation. So a slowed down Carroll if he can play, leaves Kent Bazemore and Paul Millsap to guard James the rest of the series. What does that mean? I wouldn’t be shocked if Bron averages a triple double the rest of the series. If and when Bazemore and Millsap get in foul trouble the Hawks will have to turn to the emoji man Mike Scott to stay in front of Bron or maybe Austin Daye if he’s eligible to play. I know Coach Budenholzer dreads having to put Kyle Korver on Bron for any period of the game, but that could happen and we all know what will happen if that happens. Korver might have a funeral on the court at the highlight factory.
The Cavs are currently up 1-0 and Dominque Wilkins ain’t walking through that door fam. With that being said the Hawks better give Carroll the best drugs money can buy because they need him to be able to have any chance of the upset, I like Bazemore, but him having to stick Bron for 35-40 minutes equals a lot of foul trouble.
Does anybody see a sweep in our future?
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