LeBron Sherman Marches to the Sea

Tonight in Atlanta, your punitive favorite for the next NBA championship actually had to play the entire game for the first time in the playoffs. Atlanta led after the first quarter, but not the second, third or fourth, and while the game was close throughout, close doesn't much count when you're facing the best player on the planet at the height of his powers. Despite the worst game of the playoffs for main sidekick Mo Williams, the Cavs were still able to put the Hawks away in four.

The next round might be just as easy, really. Boston and Orlando won't end until Thursday night at the earliest, and if (hah!) that series goes seven, the younger and better Cavs will have a full week to get ready for their home court defense. This much time off at this time of the year can cause rust issues, but when you look at how James is is driving his crew right now, I'm just not seeing that come into play.

Take tonight's game, for instance. Halfway through the fourth, in a game that the Cavs could have easily mailed in so that they could clinch at home, they were up four with the Atlanta crowd in full throat. No one was making anything for the Cavs, but they also were refusing to give up anything from that lead... and then James simply canned a 26-footer off a Delonte West feed, and voila, 7-point lead and Hawk Fan's dream of being the Milwaukee Bucks in LeBron's '82-'83 Moses Malone quest for perfection were dashed.

When the Hawks threatened again at the 2-minute mark, James got the old-school three to make it seven again. And at the 52 second mark, it was his drive and kick to Williams for the dagger three that sealed it. Your final: Cavs 84, Hawks 74, and the Cavs are now 8-0 in the 2009 playoffs. Yeesh.

For the Hawks, it's another year where they made progress -- last year the 8 seed and the first round loss to the eventual champions, this year the 4 seed and the second round loss to the eventual champions -- and the Association is like that; it's crawl, walk, run. But despite their many athletic pieces and appealing home-court advantage, I'm just not feeling the love for them in the long run. Part of this is simply my disdain for Mike Bibby's game (he was 1 of 6 tonight with, um, one assist), some of it is just not liking their bench pieces since they let Josh Childress take Euro dollars: Flip Murray is an NBA journeyman for a reason. I'm also just not getting past the nagging feeling that they made too many whiffs when they had high draft position to ever be a serious contender.

In 2006 with the fifth pick, they take Shelden Williams instead of Brandon Roy, Randy Foye or Rudy Gay; in 2005 it's Marvin Williams instead of Deron Williams or (gulp) Chris Paul. Give me this Hawks' team with, say, Paul and Roy instead of Bibby and Murray, and you've really got something dangerous, rather than just good. As much as I like Joe Johnson, he's never going to be better than he is right now, and what he is right now is nothing that causes James any real worry. And sitting around waiting for the murder of Williamses to be both good and healthy is less fun, really, then watching Paul and Roy.

Finally, we're going to need dangerous in the East soon, because the first time that James burns through the playoffs is entertaining... but the second through sixth? Take another look at that picture of LeBron, and tell me how he stays awake for the other championships...