Kenny Atkinson’s Bizarre Timeout Defense After Cavs’ Game 1 Collapse: ‘I Like to Hold My Timeouts’
Kenny Atkinson sat at the podium on Tuesday night, watched the Cleveland Cavaliers blow a 22-point lead, and somehow defended one of the worst coaching jobs anyone has seen in a conference finals.
The headline answer was the worst one. Asked why he refused to call timeouts during the New York Knicks’ 30-8 closing run, Atkinson told reporters, “Yeah, I like to hold my timeouts. I didn’t want to have one timeout at the end of the game. One or two-point game, I try to hold them.”
The Cavs called one timeout during that entire 7:39 stretch. One.
Most coaches use timeouts to stop runs. Atkinson used his philosophy to save them for a game that no longer existed by the time he wanted to spend them. Cleveland lost 115-104 in overtime at Madison Square Garden in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, and the postgame quote is going to haunt him for the rest of this series.
Kevin O’Connor said it on social: “The Cavaliers called a grand total of one timeout during that 30-8 run by the Knicks.” Erik Slater followed with “This has been an inexcusable coaching display by Kenny Atkinson down the stretch. Fireable loss.” Josh Reynolds went further and asked if a coach had ever been fired after Game 1 of a conference finals, because Atkinson should be the first.
You do not want to overreact to one game. You also do not want to ignore what your eyes told you. James Harden was getting eviscerated by Jalen Brunson on every possession. The Knicks set the same screen, ran the same hunt, and Atkinson did not call a single timeout to draw up a defensive switch or even just give Harden a breather.
The Sam Merrill possession at the end of regulation made it worse. Cavs had the ball with the game tied at 101 and the final shot in their hands. Atkinson did not call a timeout. Merrill caught the kickout from a double-teamed Harden, rose up wide open from the top of the key, and rolled the shot halfway in and out. Mike Breen actually started his signature “bang” call before cutting it off mid-syllable.
The bigger sin is the lack of accountability afterward. Atkinson said his team “got a little unlucky” and “I’m super proud of the way our group played.” Three quarters of good basketball does not matter when you cannot survive a fourth quarter where the opponent runs the same action 20 times in a row.
Atkinson is a smart coach. His track record in Brooklyn and his work with the Warriors as an assistant earned him this job. But this loss exposed a real coaching weakness that the Knicks are going to test for the rest of the series. He is too process-oriented in real time and not nearly aggressive enough about disrupting an opponent who is finding rhythm.
The Cavs were a heavy favorite in this series, but home court advantage just flipped. Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley are still better players than what the Knicks are putting out. The coaching matchup is now an open question.
Atkinson has until Wednesday night to figure out how to call a timeout. If he does not, Cleveland will be heading back home down 0-2 with a quote that doomed them.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
