Dex Ponce: NAW Just Dropped 36 and Cleveland Still Wants This Matchup

Thirty-six points.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker hung 36 on the Knicks Sunday night. The Knicks. Not the Wizards. Not a tanking squad resting starters. The Knicks — Brunson, OG, the whole thing.

And somewhere in Cleveland, a media ecosystem is still writing articles about how NAW is an easy perimeter target.

I'm raising to 75%.

I was at 60% ten days ago that Cleveland was making a mistake wanting this matchup. The evidence since then has been obscene. Jalen Johnson won Eastern Conference Player of the Month for March — 22.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists while the Hawks went 13-2. The defense that Cleveland called nonexistent? Second-best rating in the NBA since the All-Star break. Was 17th before the break. That's not improvement. That's a different team.

Kenny Atkinson told reporters the Cavs are "thinking about what could be optimal" for their first-round matchup. His own players aren't even on the same page — Donovan Mitchell said "wherever we fall we fall." The coach is scheming to play the Hawks while his best player is publicly saying it doesn't matter.

That's not confidence. That's a front office betting on a scouting report that expired six weeks ago.

Tomorrow night. Rocket Arena. Hawks at Cavs on ESPN.

This is the receipts game. Not the whole series — I'm not that reckless. But the first real data point. Cleveland picked this fight. Simone wrote about what this Hawks team means to the city. I'm here for what it means to the bracket.

I've been building this case all week. Tomorrow I stop talking.

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