Rising Hawks

If there's one thing the Atlanta-Miami first round series has taught us, it is this: Watch out for these Atlanta Hawks. A young team bursting with potential for so long has finally begun to cash in on its wealth of talent with an appearance in the second round of the playoffs. To put this accomplishment in perspective this is a franchise only 4 years removed from a 13-69 debacle of a season, and now the Hawks will face the #1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

After a surprisingly touch 7 game series against an overachieving Miami Heat squad, including the first ever Game 7 held in Atlanta in franchise history the young Hawks will now travel to Cleveland, where any team not named the Lakers go to die (The Cavaliers finished 39-2 at Quicken Loans Arena). Even as the daunting task approaches this up and coming Atlanta franchise, there remains a glimmer of hope for the A-Town Hawks in toppling the NBA's most winningest team this past season.

At first glance the Cavalier's front court tandem of Big Z, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Anderson Varejao. However, with Al Horford back and healthy, along with the resurgence of Zaza Pachulia in these playoffs, the Hawks more than measure up to the bigs of Cleveland. In these playoffs the seldom used Pachulia has been a rejuvanated presence in the post, doing everything from crashing the boards and diving for loose balls, averaging 9 points and 9.5 rebounds in Atlanta's 4 wins in the series.

Moreover, Miami's back court, featuring All Star Dwayne Wade, was handily shut down by the Hawks' defense, with Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby proving to be matchup nightmares throught out the series for the Heat. With all due respect to Daniel Gibson, Delonte West, and Moe Williams, all whom are fine, talented players, none of the aforementioned guards show off the scoring prowess and killer instinct of Dwayne Wade. West and Williams are no pushovers however, and the Hawks finally face a legitimate, All Star caliber point guard in the form of Moe Williams.

However the main task , and also the most impossible, facing Atlanta in their second round matchup is Lebron James. Namely, who is going to guard the 2009 NBA MVP? Arguably the most unguardable player currently in the league, James combines speed with power to create mismatches both in the post and on the perimeter. And therein lies the reason why this blogger, as well as most "experts" have been picking the Cavs to not only win, but dominate this series.

While this young Atlanta squad is very talented, and may yet reach the Finals in the near future, the Cleveland Cavaliers are far too dominant to lose in the second round. Take this into consideration: Not only did the Cavs finish with the best record in the league, but they also feature this season's MVP (Lebron James) and Coach of the Year (Mike Brown). The Hawks? They do boast a deep bench (Flip Murray, Zaza Pachulia, Maurice Evans are all valuable contributors) and an elite backcourt (Bibby and Johnson), their inexperience and lack of a "superstar" player will ultimately doom them in this unfortunate second round matchup.

But one thing no one can do is write the Hawks off as a surefire victim to the Cavs. Last season, this exact same team, a year younger in fact, took the eventual champions, the Boston Celtics, to 7 grueling, hard fought games as a #8 seed. This season Atlanta enters the playoffs as a #4 seed, and feature improvement across the board. Moreover, the Hawks, while a young squad, feature valuable veteran leadership and playoff experience in guards Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson. Coming over from the rugged Western Conference, those two have been through tough playoff series against the best teams in the league (sorry Eastern Conference). Once one puts those intangibles into perspective, the debate between Mike Bibby(58 playoff games, all starts) and Joe Johnson (22 playoff games) or Delonte West and Mo Williams (25 playoff appearances combined) begins to tilt heavily in favor of the underdog Hawks. Another reason to hope for the Hawks? While the season series between the two teams was 3-1 in favor of Cleveland, the final 3 matchups were decided by 6 points or less with the Hawks even managing to pull out a victory at Phillips Arena, accounting for their lone win against the Cavs.

Cleveland in 6