Sometimes it’s better not to say the thing you’re thinking. To keep the quiet part quiet. Because there are times when you say the quiet part out loud and later on you end up really wishing you hadn’t. Kenny Atkinson had one of those moments on Sunday. The Cleveland Cavaliers are down 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals to the New York Knicks. No team in NBA history has ever come back from that kind of deficit. You know that. Everyone knows that. Atkinson — who was the NBA’s Coach of the Year just last season — certainly knows it, too. Except if you ask him, the Cavs aren’t really down 3-0. If you tilt your head and squint at the right kind of numbers the right kind of way, Cleveland is actually winning the series. I’m paraphrasing. Here’s what Atkinson said during media availability on Sunday. “Analytically…we’re two out of three in the expected [score],” Atkinson said. “I don’t know if you guys follow that, the expected score. And I know you’re looking confused.”
Confused is one way to put it. Astounded and bemused might be another. To put it in context, Atkinson’s point was that the Cavs have gotten good looks in the series, and he was pleased with their process overall. In Game 3, he said the Cavs shot “way below” what was expected and the Knicks shot “way over.” And that might even be true. Except, as Atkinson seemed to realize as he was creating an alternate universe in his head, that particular message probably would not be well received by almost anyone.
“I know no one wants to hear that,” Atkinson said. “[With the] general public, everyone is outcome-based.”A pesky and unfortunate fact. You know what else is outcome-based? The actual NBA Playoffs. The league has this annoying habit of rewarding teams that make real-world shots and win the actual games by advancing them to the next round. Here on Earth 1, it appears the Knicks are headed for their first NBA Finals since 1999, and there’s nothing Atkinson or the Cavs can do about it. But maybe on Earth 2, Cleveland wins the Parallel Dimension Playoffs and gets to hold a killer parade. They can hang a hypothetical banner and everything. Atkinson is a bright guy. What he said was something well south of smart for a host of reasons. The whole thing smacked of something Doc Rivers said last year. Rivers is a Hall of Famer when it comes to quotes and can’t-miss in terms of content, which does not always mean that what he says necessarily reflects well on him. When it…
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2026-05-25 03:07:18
