Cavs vs Clippers | Keny Atkinson Post Game | 11.23.2025

Cavs vs Clippers | Keny Atkinson Post Game | 11.23.2025

Kenny, how do you describe the level of basketball that Don Mitchell been playing so far? It’s insane. Um, like I said, I’ve been Is there anybody any guard playing as well as him in the league? I mean, it’s just um and I, you know, everybody’s going to talk about the scoring. I I thought the passing was phenomenal tonight. you know, got a couple, you know, the lobs and the kick outs to get 13 potential assists or something someone said. So, um, he’s just in a great place, great, um, great demeanor. He’s got great control of the game. He’s in the, um, this kind of money spot in his career. He just kind of got control of everything. Um, and then, uh, just great great on the bench with, you know, leadership wise. He’s in a great great place. When you guys beat Miami a couple of weeks ago in the night without Donovan, without Evan, without Gary, called it the a great sign of a good program, given some of the contributions that you guys got in tonight’s room. Guys like Tyrese and Aquin, does this feel like it’s a net? and Luke Travers, too. It’s like, you know, um you know, we got a lot of guys out right now and and you know, you’re playing the Clippers and, you know, you say, “Well, they’re, you know, um to go out there against a team like that and have your young guys um play um play like really good rotation players, that’s huge.” cuz if you have three of them not play subpar or not, you know, kind of non-rotation value, you you end up with a loss. So, um you know, them all three of them playing playing well um helps us get the win um if they don’t play well, maybe if you’re come out of this with the loss. That’s how important it is. Nate, speaking of those guys, what do you like most about um Proctor’s uh development and what he showed you tonight? Yeah, he’s got um I they still use the word moxy, you know, he’s he’s just got um he’s got this demeanor about him. Um he’s highly skilled um player. Um but I you know, I didn’t know he was that kind of tough, you know, he’s he’s like Aussie tough, you know, he’s got great um um really good presence about him. Um, and like I said, he’s he’s really skilled skilled player. And um, I looked at his defensive rating the other day. It’s, you know, when he’s in there, he defends his position. Um, so I keep saying it, you know, I think, uh, you know, we got a first round uh, pick in the in the second round. I mean, that’s that’s what it looks like. I know it’s early. Um, I don’t want to put too much pressure on him. um kind of there’s been no discussion about you know him playing with the Charge or Glee. That’s when you know you got a player like it’s we just kind of thought about him as like a NBA rotation player the the uh the moment he stepped in in in our facility. And when you got have a guy like Tomlin like you talked about the young guys um he brings that intensity and energy. What does that do for everybody? Especially now we need it. Um with all our guys out um and he’s all over the place. He’s on the offensive boards getting us extra possessions, you know, cutting um really good in transition. And then, you know, the kid’s a heck of an athlete, you know, he’s a he’s a NBA um um you know, upper echelon athlete. Um and and the shots going to what I love about a shot, he’s not shy. He just um he just fires him up there, which is um you know certain guys in that position would hesitate. So he’s got uh he’s got uh real confidence in himself. Kenny, we’ve talked about the rebounding battle a lot this season already, but tonight came in and had 18 rebounds and you guys still came out with the rebounding battle being able to walk away with the win and that Donovan had eight. uh haven’t had 10, but the overall collective as a group to see that after struggling with it to begin the season. What does that show you? Yeah, it’s still um Ethan, I still think it’s a little bit of an Achilles heel for us. The rebounding, we’re we’re below average. Um you know, um I keep saying it, it’s it’s not just Evan, right? Obviously, no JA tonight, but um um our guards have to rebound. And like you said, I thought Donovan did a great job coming back and um you know, helping out. Um but Zubach, he had 20 rebounds against us last year if you if you remember. So um we had to start doubling him in the post. Um we should I should have probably done it earlier. Um assistants were on me. Um cuz he is um he’s really become an elite post player. Um so he he kind of had his way with us tonight. um we could adjusted earlier and help helped uh helped our big guys out. We’ve talked a lot about the just overall star players that you guys have. Obviously with the coming back, more eyes are on him. Is DeAndre Hunter underappreciated for the work he puts in? Listen, DeAndre, um I think you know, you know, having Darius back really helps. Um because we get the paint touches and that’s and you know, Evan, um you know, um Dre need, you know, Dre got some open ones. You know, I feel like without Darius, he’s he’s he’s um a lot of his threes are contested. Um so it’s great. He had four threes tonight. Um a lot of that was through our our penetration, getting in the paint. Um but uh but yeah, the healthier we get, the better DeAndre Hunter you’re going to see. Doc, kind of a nice moment when Chris Paul got the ovation. I saw you applauding a lot. Oh man. Um he’s not quite done yet, but what are you going to appreciate most about CP3? You know, I just um the longevity to play at the level he played at for so long at that position. I mean, you know, I guess Stockton’s in that, you know, who who else is in that class, I don’t know. Um um and again, to play at elite elite level, um is incredible. But, um you know, being around him for a year, he’s he’s a he’s a savant, a basketball savant. And uh no one loves the game or Chris Paul. Um I think you guys know he’s heavily involved in youth basketball um in North Carolina. across the country really. So, he pours his uh heart and soul into the young guys in this league. Every young guy in this league, you know, it seems like Chris Paul’s touch and he and he uh he mentors a lot of guys, not not just guys on his team, but guys throughout the league, young guys throughout the league. Um phenomenal phenomenal human being. Um great player. Um it was it was cool to see the Cavs fans, you know, this is like a basketball city. They they uh they gave him a heck of a ovation. It’s great to see. Bob, uh is it the plan to keep the injured guys out tomorrow as well? Then they’d be off like most of the week. Yeah. Um I’m trying to think if any of those guys are going to be back. Um you know, we’ll see. I’ll talk to Steve after. Um you know, a couple are probably probably knows, but I I’ll talk to Steve. Um you know, we’re definitely going to go in there short-handed tomorrow night. Um, but you know, we’re gonna have Donovan and Evan. Um, you know, so that that that gives us a shot and if our bench our bench will have to play great again. Um, but um not sure if we’re getting any of those guys back. And how do you think you did defensively on Harden? Really? Well, you know, was it, you know, at 55 the night before and, you know, um, but, uh, you know, I thought we did a good job getting him to his right hand once once he starts getting to his left and downhill and gets the labs. Um, and our our, um, kind of offball defense was really good. We’re in the gaps trying to trying to prevent that um, you know, penetration and did a good job contesting his uh, histories. Spence um talked to Nick Batum before the game. I know this is kind of a little different question, but um spoke very highly of you and and this the you know the years you spent together and obviously team France too. What what are your kind of takeaways from his long longevity because he’s been in the league forever and obviously has a huge international impact. I’d say he’s one of the most underrated players um you know I don’t know past 10 years like in in this um in this league. Um, probably because how his game is. He’s just super efficient. Um, but one of the smartest players in the league, one of the most underrated players in this league. I mean, look, look at his, you know, look back and look at Nick Batum. That guy’s had a great great career. Um, and uh, contributes to winning. Um, and then what he’s done for team France over the years. Um, always plays, you know, he’s one of those guys, the French guys, they all play. they play for their national team and and that’s not every country, you know, not every, you know, a lot of the other countries guys sit out, the French guys play and he he was our captain with team France. Um, but a a heck of a player. I don’t I don’t I don’t I don’t know if people appreciate him enough. Is is there any kind of anecdotal or story that that you could tell from your time over in LA together when you guys were matched up? Yeah, you probably um um well, yeah, when we um we beat Donovan in in uh in the conference semifinals at Utah and we we put uh we put Nick at the five, we put Batum at the five, so Gobear had to guard him and that changed the series. Um changed everything. Um we had the Terrence man game where he had nine threes and we we beat uh Donovan’s not going to like I’m talking about this cuz he always talks about it. Um, but that was the great thing about Nick. You could play him with the five. Um, you know, Ty did it a bit a bit tonight. Um, that’s how we got to the conference finals with the with the Clippers was him playing the five. And what a versatile. You know, he could play five or he could play one. You know, there’s not many guys in the league that can do that. Heck of a player, great person. All right, Kenny. Last year you got off to a great start, 15-0. Health wasn’t an issue. This year you’re 12 and six. Health is an issue and you’re trying to figure a lot of things out. Yeah. What would you say you’re learning about yourself as a coach during this period right now in this season? Patience, you know. Um I caught myself a couple weeks ago. I think I told you guys getting fr a little bit frustrated because we weren’t we’re not like, you know, clicking and we’re not um we’re not moving the ball like and and I just had to take a step back and say we we we have people out. It’s not the same team as last year. Um and and I’ve kind of calmed myself, you know, so that that’s important, right? Your um your kind of emotional meter, you know, your emotional control when when things aren’t going perfect. Um even tonight, it wasn’t a wasn’t a masterpiece by any means. Um um yeah, patience and positivity. I would say those are the two two things, you know, when things aren’t going exactly how how you want them to go. coe last week you talked about making up some ground on this six game home stand. Yeah. Now that it’s wrapped up, how would you assess that? What was our record? Four. Four and two. Give us a B and B grade. Um, you know, um, like I said, we we are, um, you know, we’re learning a lot about ourselves, but, you know, we we we have a a ways to go to get where we we want to go. So, um, you know, a good good, not great, which is fine that it’s not amount of criticism or or not down on that. Um but you know I’ll take 12 and six with with um kind of the the health situation we’ve had. Um but um you know um again I think uh I think a lot of it is offense really quite honestly where we’re we got to still figure some things out. We can have Donovan be our savior all the time. Um but I you know as we get guys back we’ll we’ll we’ll get better. Okay. Right. Thanks everybody.

Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Kenny Atkinson spoke with the media following 120-105 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on November 23, 2025 at Rocket Arena.