You would not have believed that the Cleveland Cavaliers had just won a basketball game based on head coach Kenny Atkinson’s first comments in the press room after their 136-131 win over the Orlando Magic. In fact, you likely would have thought the Cavs were blown out.
“I just told the team, if we’re going to play defense like this, we’re going to have a short playoff stint,” Atkinson said in response to a question about Donovan Mitchell and James Harden lighting it up on offense. “Right now we have a mentality that we are just going to outscore people, and we all know come playoff time it’s not going to be that easy.”
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Atkinson is referring to the Cavs allowing a mediocre Magic team to put up 131 points on the road – and on the second half of a back-to-back no less. The Cavs appeared to have put the clamps down some in the third quarter, but the Magic were never kept down long enough to stop the bleeding.
When asked what the biggest issue with the defense was, Atkinson again did not mince words. “The compete level, and then along with the compete level there’s an IQ level,” he said. “So if your compete level is not there defensively, you’re missing close outs, not understanding personnel, and that is the IQ part.”
Atkinson went on to outline that he’s most frustrated because he knows they’re capable of being better. “Our leaders got to take ownership, it really starts there. We have to switch our mentality right now.”
The Cavs are also working to determine who will make the playoff rotation and who won’t, and there may be an emphasis on favoring players who will compete on the defensive end. “We’re going to find the guys that’ll defend,” Atkinson said. “When the playoffs come, we lean on that, who can guard their position, who is going to be a high-level defensive player. That’s what gets you into the rotation.”
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The Cavs are missing starting center Jarrett Allen, but that isn’t good enough of an excuse for Atkinson, and the same goes for our of the best defensive players in the league in Evan Mobley.
“He (Allen) is a big piece of what we do, but he’s not playing right now,” Mobley said. “So the next man up has to step up.”
“I don’t want to hear that,” Atkinson said with regard to Allen’s absence being the reason the defense has slipped. “We’ve got the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, we got the personnel.”
Mitchell echoed that sentiment, saying that the Cavs do not to rely on flipping a switch and upping the defensive intensity. “We have to better,” Mitchell said after the game. “I think we can take a step (defensively). It’s there, we got six straight stops a few nights ago against New Orleans. It’s there.”
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On the flip side, the Cavs have been one of the best offensive teams in the league over the last month plus. But it clearly is not something they want to rest their laurels on heading into a tough postseason that will force them to face some physical teams like the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, and/or the New York Knicks. Getting Allen back will certainly help, but without a collective mindset to be more defensive-focused, it might not matter too much.
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