ATLANTA, GA - MAY 22: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers reacts as he leaves the game late in their 94 to 82 win over the Atlanta Hawks during Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs at Philips Arena on May 22, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

1. ATLANTA - LeBron James shows up for work Friday night wearing a backward baseball cap. He is quite possibly the first person to pull off the backward-cap look since its early ‘90s heyday of Ken Griffey Jr. and Axl Rose. We lead with this fashion choice because on this night, LeBron James will do many things very well. Tonight, LeBron will be better at his job than you and I ever are at ours. And yet, redeeming the backward cap may be the most impressive feat of all.

2. This is Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, a series pitting James’ Cleveland Cavaliers against the Atlanta Hawks, and it’s both a sad commentary and absolutely true to say that this is the most important game in Atlanta’s history. The Hawks have never advanced out of the second round, and after losing Game 1 at home, this is a must-win. This represents Atlanta’s best chance to get to the NBA Finals, and all the Hawks have to do is get past LeBron, which is like saying Everest isn’t so tough once you get past the climbing.

3. Tipoff is 8:30 p.m. ET, and a little after 7, James is out on the court getting loose. He runs through a sequence: drive to pull-up jumper, step-back three-pointer, targeting the basket from every point on the 180 degrees around the rim available to a shooter. Sometimes he’ll shoot off a pass thrown by an assistant coach; more often, he’s on his own, in his own rhythm, on his own time.

4. Take a ball and slam it to the ground with one hand. Now imagine being able to manage that kind of velocity shooting upward. This is what LeBron does, every shot carrying the force of a high school football team running through a taped paper sign. But LeBron’s shots aren’t bricks or line drives; far from it. No, the shots trace graceful arcs against the sky. Thor’s hammer does, too.

5. James had entered Philips Arena, backward hat and all, a few steps behind Kyrie Irving, who walked with a downcast sad-Charlie-Brown demeanor. Soon after, we’d learn why: Irving would be held out of Game 2 because of lingering knee issues. Combine that with the ongoing absence of Kevin Love, and that meant James would be shouldering the entire Cavaliers franchise. Down two stars, against the No. 1 seed, on the road … who would blame Cleveland for dropping this game? The Cavs had still wrested home-court advantage away from Atlanta.

6. The Hawks’ pregame ceremony is an event in itself, combining projectors that transform the court into a movie screen with bass hammers that can redirect your heartbeat. Seriously, check this out:

The Hawks’ P.A. announcer, a local radio DJ named Ryan Cameron, takes the first shot at James: “It’s time to show The King we bow before no one!” Worth noting: that’s exactly the kind of pronouncement that gets people slaughtered on “Game of Thrones.”

7. Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll went down in Game 1 with a knee injury that looked so bad fans initially believed he was done for the year. But an MRI revealed no serious damage, and here he is, two nights later, back in the lineup amid the night’s loudest cheers. His assignment: guard LeBron. Welcome back, knee.

8. James begins the game going right at Carroll, isolating him and then beginning a hypnotic lean-and-step-and-step-back dance. It’s almost a Bo Diddley beat: step, step, step, stepGO, and then James indeed is gone, right past Carroll for a jumper. James scores seven of Cleveland’s first nine points, and the Hawks will never get more than two points ahead of the Cavaliers.

9. Right from the start, it’s clear that James is going to do every damn thing necessary to win this game. Carroll finds this out early when he gets a bit lackadaisical bringing the ball up the court. James swoops in on him from out of nowhere, and Carroll just manages to get the ball away, his body language that of a man who stepped off a curb without looking and very nearly walked into a moving bus.

10. They film “The Walking Dead” all around here – you can even see Philips Arena in the background of one scene from this past season – and by the second quarter, the Hawks have the exact demeanor of anyone on that show who has to walk into a darkened house or a dank forest. You know something’s out there waiting to devour you, you just don’t know when it’s going to make its move.

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