Delonte West and the Cleveland Cavaliers have swept another series, this time eliminating the Atlanta Hawks just as they had with the Detroit Pistons in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoff series.
With the sweep, the Cavaliers become the first team since the 1995 Miami Heat to complete sweeps in each of their first two series. Unlike the Heat before them though, these Cavaliers have won each of their first eight games with double digit leads. The Cavaliers will now rest up as they wait for either the Orlando Magic or the Boston Celtics - two teams that head into game five tomorrow night in Boston, tied at two games a piece.
In tonight’s series finale, the Cavs won by a final score of 84 to 74. LeBron James was the game’s high scorer with his 27 point effort. Delonte West scored 21 points on 7 for 13 shooting while also pulling down 4 rebounds, dishing 6 assists and coming up with one steal.
The Cleveland Cavaliers continue to beat up on the Atlanta Hawks, as they now have a 31 point lead with about six minutes left to play. It’s a certainty then that the two teams will head to Atlanta for Game 3 with Cleveland up two games, having defended home court successfully.
Delonte West left game two after having been poked in the eye. ESPN sideline reporters have confirmed that Delonte will remain out for the remainder of Game 2 with what’s simply being diagnosed with a poked eye. The Cleveland Cavaliers will treat his injury carefully because of the sensitive nature of the eye area.
Delonte put up 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists before leaving Game 2 in the third quarter of play.
Game 1 is history, and on an evening where LeBron James received his MVP trophy in front of the adoring Cleveland faithful - he then led the Cavaliers to a pouncing of the Hawks, defeating them by a final score of 99 to 72.
To no surprise it was LeBron leading the game’s top scorers with his 34 point effort. Delonte West had a great night for himself too, playing a team high 39 minutes and earning a line that included 13 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals all while committing just 2 turnovers.
Game two will tip off Thursday night at 8PM EST. Tune in!
We’re a matter of minutes away from Tuesday night’s series opener between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks… And according to league experts across the Nation, this is a 4 or 5 game series that has the Cavaliers moving on past Atlanta with relative ease.
Bob Finnan of The News-Herald breaks down the matchup between Delonte West and Joe Johnson, giving Johnson the edge:
Shooting guard
Delonte West vs. Joe Johnson: West will make Johnson work for his points in the series. Johnson, though, is an All-Star-caliber player who needs to be kept in check. He’s capable of putting up big numbers and has had some big games against the Cavs. He averaged 17.1 points in the Miami series. It took him a while to get going, but made 6 of 8 3-point goals in Game 7. That’s what the Cavs want to prevent. West averaged 11.5 points and 4.0 assists in the first round. He’ll have his hands full with Johnson.
Edge: Hawks
With King James having been recently crowned as the league’s MVP - everyone will be tuning into TNT at 8PM EST for the tipoff between the leagues first and fourth round seeds in the Eastern Conference.
Stay tuned, more to come now that the layoff in between series is out of the way!
During yesterday’s nationally televised broadcast, ABC and ESPN’s commentators showed a clip of the Cleveland Cavaliers new playoff commercial that was a twist off of the Heineken beer commercial. The full length commercial, which was created behind an idea of superstar LeBron James, features much more screen time for Delonte West and Anderson Varejao.
Here’s the commercial in it’s entirety… Be sure to watch the whole thing!
