{"id":633520,"date":"2026-05-09T20:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T20:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/633520\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T20:49:10","slug":"kenny-atkinson-wants-cavs-to-adjust-to-pistons-physicality-this-is-on-us-to-adapt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/633520\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenny Atkinson wants Cavs to adjust to Pistons physicality: \u2018This is on us to adapt\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014 Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>\u2019 head coach Kenny Atkinson used his media availability before Game 2 against the Indiana Pacers<\/a> last year to complain about how officiating changes drastically from the regular season to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s this rhetoric going around the league about, you know, \u2018Oh man, that\u2019s playoff basketball.\u2019 To me, that\u2019s not playoff basketball,\u201d Atkinson said last year<\/a> when asked about two plays that kept Evan Mobley<\/a> and then Cavs\u2019 forward De\u2019Andre Hunter from playing Game 2.<\/p>\n

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The Cavs are in a similar spot a year later. They lost two close games at the start of their second-round series, this time against the Detroit Pistons<\/a>. Their opponent was physically stronger in both games and wore the Cavs down.<\/p>\n

Instead of using it as an excuse and pleading for the league to change how these games are called, Atkinson is instead challenging his players to adjust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on us to adapt to how the game is being called,\u201d Atkinson said on Saturday afternoon. \u201cThat\u2019s a big part of this\u2026 It\u2019s on us. This isn\u2019t on the referees. This is on us to adapt and understand how the game is being called.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Few teams take advantage of the extra leeway more than the Pistons. They\u2019re one of the most physically imposing teams in the league, and that\u2019s by design.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just wear on you,\u201d Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before Game 3. \u201cWe legally hit you, we legally bump you. We\u2019re legally handsy, and we just make it difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs\u2019 three best players, Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, and Evan Mobley, have struggled with this at times. Mitchell has seen his free-throw rate cut in half from the regular season. Harden has had a difficult time valuing possessions. And Mobley hasn\u2019t been able to get to his spots in the first two games of the series.<\/p>\n

This has also affected the Cavs\u2019 three-point shooting. Cleveland had their third-worst shooting game<\/a> of the season (21.9%), which included going 0-11 in the fourth quarter. Many of those looks were wide open.<\/p>\n

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According to Atkinson, there\u2019s a correlation between Detroit\u2019s physicality and his team missing threes. He made an analogy to NBA 2K, saying that his team\u2019s stamina meter was drained too low by the end of the game. \u201cEvery time you get hit or you run a sprint, your [stamina] level goes down. \u2026 I think there\u2019s something to that fatigue effect on shooting and that\u2019s why they try to wear teams down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkinson is right on all of this. At the same time, I\u2019m not sure how you get your team more prepared for physicality at this point in the season. This isn\u2019t a playing style this team has thrived in since their inception.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if the Cavs have a response in Game 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get this one, and it\u2019s on,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cWe were there. I don\u2019t think we played great. Let\u2019s play great. Let\u2019s get this one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 head coach Kenny Atkinson used his media availability before Game 2 against the Indiana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[852,8174,4576,13054,32707,51299,2934,3441,6418,177773,355,6454,99,2970],"class_list":["post-633520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-eastern-conference","tag-evan-mobley","tag-getty-images","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-james-harden","tag-kenny-atkinson","tag-nba","tag-ohio","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}