Hawks get defensive entering rematch with LeBron James

11:22 AM ET

CLEVELAND — The Atlanta Hawks started the season off 7-1, yet something just didn’t feel right.

The Hawks’ offense, which hummed along so smoothly toward 60 wins and the Eastern Conference finals a season ago, was not as potent as before.

Soon after, the Hawks were hovering above .500, following up promising winning streaks with mini losing slides. Coach Mike Budenholzer had long stressed defense, but the Hawks began to realize that defense — and not their flowing read-and-react offense that was the darling of their surprise season a year ago — was going to be the key to any success they had this season and to stopping these roller-coaster turns.

“I think for a while, we were just kind of waiting for last year to happen again, and all of the sudden we are going to get open shots and things would be easier for us,” Hawks guard Kyle Korver said. “I think there was a good healthy realization that, ‘Hey, we got to evolve.’ We all got to evolve in life right? You just can’t keep on doing the same thing forever.”

Korver recalls a four-game road trip in January when defense first started to sink in.

“I don’t think we played particularly well,” said Korver, whose Hawks lost five of seven games during and shortly after that West Coast swing. “But there was an understanding amongst ourselves that we had to change some things up.

“I think everything started to shift. I kept on saying, the ship is turning. It is like this big, huge [cruise ship] that’s turning.”

As the Hawks embark on another seven-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Korver and his teammates believe Atlanta is better than the team that got swept by LeBron James & Co. in the conference finals a year ago.

“Right now we are healthy,” Hawks point guard Jeff Teague said. “And we go in with a sense of urgency that we can play with the team and got to make the most of it.

“I think we were slowing up when we came into the series last year,” Teague said of facing the Cavs in last season’s playoffs. “I …

continue reading in source espn.go.com