The Cleveland Cavaliers are right where everyone expected them to be before the season started; they're in the Eastern Conference Finals facing a team few would have predicted to finish with the best record in the conference, and to go this deep in the playoffs. The Atlanta Hawks and the Cavs finished one and two in the East, and now they take their rightful place in the conference finals.

While the Cavs were expected to make a deep playoff push with the addition of LeBron James and Kevin Love, no one could have foreseen such a vastly different team at this point of the season from how they started. Love is hurt, Kyrie Irving is playing hurt, but the Cavs machine keeps humming along. It's easy to credit James' brilliance for the team's success, but it would also be wise to credit first year NBA coach David Blatt for the strides he continues to take.

Blatt took a depleted Cavs lineup against the Chicago Bulls and showed the kind of bench guile that brought him multiple Euro League titles. One could say he outcoached Tom Thibodeau, and turned forgotten players on bad teams like Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert, and J.R. Smith into playoff contributors. Heck, even Matthew Dellavedova has had his shine this postseason.

On the other side, it's tough to gauge if the Hawks have enough to hang with LeBron and company. They had a harder than expected time against the Brooklyn Nets, and had to dig real deep to get past the Washington Wizards. The offense that was built on perpetual ball and player movement is being figured out by defense, particularly the importance of Kyle Korver in the whole scheme of things.

You can look at the games Atlanta has lost this postseason, and one thing is clear, the Hawks struggle when Korver struggles. Korver has not seen this kind of defensive attention his entire career. His looks are mostly contested, and he has to work extra hard just to get a chance to get a shot off.

Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap, and Al Horford have been solid enough to get them to this point, but the four Hawks All-Stars will have to find another gear if they're going to stand a chance in the conference finals.

The Cavaliers and Hawks open their Eastern Conference Finals matchup Wednesday, May 20. Tip-off is set at 8:30 p.m. ET. You can catch the action via live stream here.