LeBron James Annihilated The Hawks With His Unparalleled Passing Ability

The Cleveland Cavaliers are supposed to beat the Atlanta Hawks, especially at home, and the Cavs took care of business on Tuesday evening. While the Hawks have actually given LeBron James and company some trouble in recent years — at least during the regular season — this particular evening presented little-to-no issues for the home team, as they won 123-114 in a game where James was locked in from the opening tip.

By halftime, James and the Cavs led by a 14-point margin and, in virtually every way, the best player on the planet dominated the game. In an interesting twist, however, James attempted only five shots prior to the halftime break, instead leaning on his status as arguably the best passer in the league.

James dished out nine assists before halftime. He racked up additional dimes after the half on his way to 17 for the game, matching his career high. If anything, his singular dominance as a passer is underplayed but, against Atlanta, it was on full display to the point where it is actually difficult to parse through which dishes to highlight. There was this subtle pass, using James’ size and vision to find a sneaky Jae Crowder on a cut.

Then, the exclamation point appeared when James found Kyle Korver with the pass that featured the most showmanship of the evening.

All told, James finished the night with 25 points (on 11-for-13 shooting) and seven rebounds to go along with his 17 assists. If anything, that already ridiculous statistical profile almost undersells just how stellar he was on this particular evening.

It is no secret that the Cavaliers eviscerated the Hawks, most of that centers on Cleveland’s unstoppable profile as a three-point shooting juggernaut. That Atlanta weakness popped up in this spot to the tune of 20-for-38 shooting from beyond the arc for the Cavs. However, an additional step of analysis reveals that, well, it is all facilitated by James himself.

Yes, it is a necessity to have plenty of shooting when it comes to putting up historic three-point performances and Cleveland is blessed with players like Kevin Love, Jose Calderon, JR Smith and the aforementioned Korver to provide incredible spacing. Still, the quality of looks provided by the presence of James really stands out in that he can simply combine size and vision in a way that is unmatched by any player in the league today with the potential (future) exception of Ben Simmons.

Frankly, it is almost as if James is playing a different game than the rest of the players on the floor and, even if that feels like slightly faint praise against a wildly overmatched Hawks team, it certainly is not. In the 35 minutes James played on Tuesday evening, the Cavaliers outscored their opponents by 19 points and, in the other 13 minutes, it was the undermanned Hawks emerging with a 10-point advantage.

Single-game plus-minus is, of course, a flawed proposition without context but, on this night, it felt strangely prescient in outlining just how good Cleveland’s superstar actually was. And the craziest part is he’s been this good all year, which is looking like another MVP-caliber campaign.

In some ways, James facing off against a porous Hawks defense is just unfair, especially given what he was able to put on tape without seemingly grinding in the way that a playoff atmosphere might require. Beyond that, though, it was clear that Atlanta’s resistance, while futile, would not have changed much if transforming into an average or even above-average NBA team.

Simply put, what James is capable of doing is unreal. On a Tuesday night in mid-December, he reminded the Atlanta Hawks of that status, even while much of the league was transfixed on the Ball family descending on New York. With all eyes on Manhattan, the Cavs operated in relative obscurity against an uninspiring opponent.

It’s remarkable how a game in which the best player in the world showed off his most unique gift can happen in said obscurity but, with how conditioned we all are to accept his greatness as a nightly occurrence, that happens when LeBron James is playing.