Kyle Korver is Out for the Postseason, Say Goodnight, Atlanta

Kyle Korver tore up his ankle in the 4th quarter when Cleveland’s Matt Dellavedova landed on him, and the NBA’s leading 3-point shooter is out for the season. The Hawks are calling it a severe sprain, but they haven’t ruled out surgery.

And the Hawks are done.

The 60-win regular season is a distant memory, and it won’t fondly be remembered because they’re going to get swept by Cleveland. LeBron got just 27 minutes from his wingman Kyrie Irving in Game 1, but it didn’t matter – the Cavs still bludgeoned the Hawks with a bunch of role players morphing into stars for two glorious nights in the ATL.

So the Hawks will go into the summer being labeled frauds, which isn’t really fair, but that’s life when you ring up the best record in the East and get smoked in the Conference Finals without putting up much of a fight. Oh, and DeMarre Carroll is a free agent and probably leaves when somebody overpays for him; Paul Millsap – who has been a non-factor against the Cavs – will have to be retained. Atlanta has the 15th pick in the draft, and is probably praying Wisconsin’s Sam Dekker falls into their laps.

The Cavs? Even though Korver gave them very little trouble in the first two games, he’s still someone you had absolutely had to account for everytime down the floor. More importantly, Cleveland can rest injured Kyrie Irving (knee) for the rest of this series – unless something crazy happens, like LeBron gets hurt – and perhaps have him close to 100% for the NBA Finals against Golden State, barring a Houston comeback.

The NBA Finals begin June 4 (very likely in Golden State), which would mean Irving will have had two weeks of rest.