The Cleveland Cavaliers squandered a 22-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks.
Numerous things have to go wrong to give up an advantage that large. The defensive end was no exception. Jalen Brunson led the way with 15 points in the fourth quarter to help claw his team to victory.
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Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson could’ve handled the fourth quarter better. He held onto timeouts and allowed the Knicks to pick on James Harden repeatedly down the stretch. Both are inexcusable.
Still, the comeback was also because the Knicks hit some incredibly tough shots. That’s something that Atkinson wanted to acknowledge when he talked to media members after practice on Wednesday afternoon.
“[In the] fourth quarter, they were in the first percentile of shot quality,” Atkinson said after practice. “We have data that you guys don’t have. First percentile. So, our process was right, they made some tough, tough shots.”
We don’t have access to the data, but you can sort of see what is leading to Cleveland’s internal numbers pointing to this.
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Of the 22 shots that New York took in the fourth, nine came at the rim, six came in the midrange, and seven came from beyond the arc. Of those three zones, the shots at the rim are the ones the Knicks converted the least, which is the most efficient place to score from.
A lot of the looks in the midrange were contested pretty well, particularly on Brunson. However, good offense beats good defense, as it did here.
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Atkinson also wasn’t willing to put this loss on Harden. He said on Wednesday that the Cavs wouldn’t have gotten out of the first round if it wasn’t for him, and that his defense down the stretch wasn’t the main issue.
“[Harden] is a good isolation defender,” Atkinson said. “Everybody’s putting it on James. Sure, some of it was him. … Sometimes micro experiences get exaggerated.”
I wouldn’t go as far as saying the eye test backs up that the Knicks were in the first percentile for shot quality. They hit some tough shots, but they also got some clean outside looks, especially when the Cavs tried and failed to double-team Brunson. That said, that wasn’t where the Cavs lost this game.
“Looking back on it, we’re more dissapointed by the offense,” Atkinson said. “The shot quality wasn’t great. We weren’t getting to the rim. We took nine threes. I thought we could’ve gotten to the rim more and put more pressure on them.”
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The offense was horrid down the stretch. All of the things that were working throughout the game just disappeared. This is where Donovan Mitchell deserves a lot of blame.
Mitchell was occupying possessions, but not generating good looks. He took the air out of the ball by slowing down the pace. This came at the expense of the rhythm they built in the previous two quarters, leading to disastrous results as seen in the possession breakdown in the final eight minutes of the fourth.
The Cavs wouldn’t have been in the position that they were in if it weren’t for Mitchell’s incredible shotmaking and the force he was playing with on both ends in the first three quarters. He deserves credit for that. But he also bears the blame for that going away.
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It’s also fair to point out that this is where fatigue likely set in the most. That’s why holding onto timeouts is indefensible for Atkinson.
Despite how poorly things ended, the Cavs showed that they can play up to their talent level against the Knicks. If they can figure out how to do so for 48 minutes, instead of just 40, they’ll turn the series around.
“I just want to lean on the positives,” Atkinson said. “We had three quarters of really good basketball. Some of the best basketball we’ve honestly played in the playoffs… offensively and defensively.”
