GAME IS BEING PLAYED TODAY!!

The Atlanta Hawks are a professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at Philips Arena.

The team's origins can be traced to the establishment of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks in 1946 in Moline, Illinois, a member of the National Basketball League (NBL) and owned by Ben Kerner & Leo Ferris.[4] In 1949, they joined the NBA as part of the merger between the NBL and the Basketball Association of America (BAA), and had Red Auerbach as coach briefly. In 1951, Kerner moved the team to Milwaukee, where they changed their name to the Hawks. Kerner and the team moved again in 1955 to St. Louis, where they won their only NBA championship in 1958 and qualified to play in the NBA Finals in 1957, 1960 and 1961. The Hawks played the Boston Celtics in all four of their trips to the NBA Finals. The St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968, when Kerner sold the franchise to Thomas Cousins and former Georgia Governor Carl Sanders.[5][6]

The Hawks currently own the second-longest drought (behind the Sacramento Kings) of not winning an NBA championship at 57 seasons. The franchise's lone NBA championship, as well as all four NBA Finals appearances, occurred when the team was based in St. Louis. Meanwhile, they went 48 years without advancing past the second round of the playoffs in any format, until finally breaking through in 2015. Much of the failure they've experienced in the postseason can be traced back to their poor history in the NBA draft. Since 1980, the Hawks have drafted only four players who have been chosen to play in an NBA All-Star Game (Doc Rivers, Kevin Willis, Al Horford, and Jeff Teague). Dominique Wilkins was actually selected by the Utah Jazz and traded to the Hawks a few months after the draft. Horford and Teague are the only All-Star Hawks to have been drafted since Willis was selected in 1984, and Horford is also the only first-rounder the Hawks selected in their nine-year playoff drought to play in an NBA All-Star Game.

Source

Game Stats Pregame

Cleveland Cavaliers

So Far This Season:

The Cavs are 6-0. The Hawks are not likely the team to change their undefeated streak. If the Cavs even half show up to the game they will decimate the Hawks.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, also known as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team began play in 1970. Since 1994, the team has played its home games at Quicken Loans Arena, which is shared with the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League.

The Cavaliers have featured many NBA legends during their history, including LeBron James, Brad Daugherty, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Mark Price. Past NBA greats such as Nate Thurmond, Lenny Wilkens, Walt Frazier, and Shaquille O'Neal have also played in Cleveland, albeit near the end of their careers.

The franchise has won five Central Division championships (1976, 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2016), three Eastern Conference championships (2007, 2015, 2016), one NBA championship (2016), and have reached the playoffs 20 times in their 46-year history. The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors in NBA Finals Game 7 on June 19, 2016 after coming back from a 3–1 deficit, making them the first team in NBA history to accomplish that feat. However, the team has also had a number of dubious distinctions, such as former owner Ted Stepien's tenure, which led the NBA to create a rule regulating the trading of draft picks, known as the "Stepien rule", and a 26-game losing streak in 2010–11, which, at the time, tied the record for the longest losing streak in major American professional sports.

Source

Game Stats Pregame

Support SteemSports Ultimate Vote Betting … together we all can win!

How to Play

• Vote on the main post to enter the bet (main post rewards will also be added to the Stake Pool).

• Cast your Vote Bet on ONLY ONE outcome for which you bet on for the win (Multiple comment votes will be automatically disqualified by the script, unvote and revote counts as multiple votes and will be disqualified).

• After 24 hours, the post and related game comments payout to the pool; remember 25% voters rewards are deducted from the total post payout value first as per Steem curation rules. Voters are rewarded in standard fashion in proportion to their Steem Power holdings.

The Stake Pool:

• The remaining 75% of the total payout is paid out in 50% Steem Power and 50% in liquid currencies, the latter now varies in payout ratio after the new fork. To make the process less complicated, we have decided to use all paid out SBD to buy Steem in the internal market to create a grand total Steem Stake Pool.

• 30% of the Stake Pool will be retained, of which 15% will go to the writer/sports presenter of the post, and the 15% balance towards editing, development and advertising.

• 70% of the Stake Pool will be held until the event/game outcome is determined.

• Once the winning outcome is determined, we will execute a proprietary developed script that will divide and pay out the Steem rewards equally, using the Power Up method, to Mass Distribute SP to all participants that voted on the main post as the entrance fee as well as voted on the correct comment representing the winning outcome.

• Only participants with a Reputation of 35 or more will qualify to earn SP rewards, but non-qualifiers can still vote and comment in support of the redistribution initiative.

• Entry cut-off time is the earlier of the post payout or the start of the event.

Disclaimer and Image/Source Credits:

• Image Credits: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

• Images used in this post are either paid for and modified, Creative Commons (CC) or image credits supplied.

• Note the views and predictions of the presenters are their own personal views and do not reflect the views and opinions of @steemsports. @steemsports does not offer betting advice.

• Errors and Omissions Excepted (E&OE). SteemSports is currently beta, currently no liability will be assumed for errors.

• @steemsports reserves the right to amend future payout percentages based on the operation needs of the account.

• @steemsports is not a traditional betting platform and no fiat currency is used as rewards or in casting bets; as such does not fall under any gaming and gambling jurisdictions; but even so, users are urged to first consult with the laws and age restrictions of their countries.

• @steemsports in the unlikely event that when the Stake Pool is divided up between the winners and the nomenclature resolution goes below the third decimal place (example: 0.0001), then Steem decimal restrictions won’t allow a payout and the pool will carry over to the next game.

• Please vote responsibly :).

Copyright © Ricardo Goncalves 2016

Campaign Partners

@complexring - campaign supporting witness and advisory role

@nextgencrypto - campaign supporting witness

@smooth.witness - campaign supporting witness

@blocktrades - campaign supporting witness

@datasecuritynode - campaign supporting witness

@joseph - campaign supporting witness

@chitty - campaign supporting witness [Steemfund Project]

@kryptik - advisory role

Vote for the people! Vote for thecryptodrive witness!

Autovote @steemsports posts with steemvoter.com and help us grow the SP Distribution Stake Pool!

Manual bets on comments must still be placed to pick winners!

Check out the sports category for great buys!

Contact me, thecryptodrive to have your logos displayed in the footer of our posts in exchange for advertising @steemsports to your communities and initiatives, or for other worthy support.

Remember to UPVOTE, FOLLOW REPOST and SHARE on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others, in support of the @steemsports initiative!

VOTE BET BELOW!!! VOTE MAIN POST AND ONE OUTCOME ONLY!