Cavs vs Grizzlies | Kenny Atkinson Post Game | 11.15.2025

Cavs vs Grizzlies | Kenny Atkinson Post Game | 11.15.2025

Okay. Yeah, let’s do it. Okay, Danny, what was different for you guys in the fourth quarter? I don’t know. First three, we just I felt like we were stuck in mud again for three quarters and and then give them credit, man. I thought they played really well. Um obviously with Job going on, they had some guys step up. Um but we could not get it below like it was like nine seven n we couldn’t we couldn’t get on a sustained run until the fourth quarter. Um so um credit to them. Obviously Edy coming back helps them a lot cuz they’re in that drop now and and uh you know we we offensively struggled struggled against him struggled against the drop and obviously you know fourth game in a row where we we haven’t shot it well. Um but Danny uh 16point fourth quarter right that was that was really the key. It wasn’t our I don’t you know Don made some great plays and and Evan Evan stepped it up but our defense saved us um because we didn’t have it offensively tonight. Felt like Evan was getting to the basket a little bit more frequently later in the game. What what did you see that allowed him to get to those spots? Yeah. Um I don’t know. He was just, you know, he just was more aggressive. His pop was better and just determined. And it’s tough against that team because when they got Jackson and and Edy in there, you got that’s like that’s like a wall. Um you got two great, you know, not good rim protectors, two great rim protectors. I did think what helped him we we ran that atto, he got that three. So now you hit, you know, you hit one three against them. Now they started closing out on him a little bit and and I I felt like he got he got downhill off off a close out a couple times. Um but um again we we just we did not play well and and found a way. Gene, coach, um Dean was uh didn’t put up big numbers, but he was at plus 22 and I know you went with him in the last two minutes. Uh how how big was he in that? We needed his strength, you know, against those two big guys. Just just rebounding. Um ability to risk uh resist both of those big guys. Um and uh yeah, he was great defensively. Um you know, um we were really debating, we’re thinking about Naquin, too, but we we felt like we needed to we needed the size. We needed the um um his strength to to wall up against those guys. So, um but we were searching, Joe. We were searching for combinations. We’re throwing throwing a lot against the wall trying to get this thing going. But I think at the end of the day, it was Don and and and Evan that just kind of raised their game in the fourth quarter. Max and Jaylen seem to be your kind of energy guys. And without them, how big does Nquon come up? Looks that way. You know, there’s two games in a row um where he’s kind of he’s kind of really helped our energy, you know. Um he’s not stuck in mud. He’s like a racehorse out there. He’s flying. He’s getting deflections. He’s um he’s all over the place. Even offensively got out in transition, made a couple plays. Um you know, he looks like he’s playing an open gym in September, you know, and and um you know, um again, you know, part of this is we’re not we’re not making shots right now. Um I think that’s that’s part of it. I really got to look, you know, look at our quality of shots we’re getting. Um but again, good good grind out game, good defensive fourth quarter. What kind of confidence can it give Naquin when he’s taking on someone like Jiren Jackson who’s proven he’s allstar level guy and he was getting into some tussles with him there in the in the third like it seemed like he was up for the challenge. I was thinking that when you had 18 points the other night you imagine, you know, it’s like all a sudden, man, I’m I’m an NBA player. I can get 18 points. I can play in a big game like this and contribute, have great minutes. I I can’t imagine what it what it does for a guy’s confidence. But listen, you know, I really believe in the work, right? Like I think of summer league I mean summer league he was um I I don’t know incredible right he was uh elite and you say well summer league sure um and then um I would say you know open gym and and and preeason really good so it shouldn’t really be a surprise to to us the coaching staff um but he’s building you know building confidence and and uh kind of what we were talking about before the game this is a speed game now you know it’s going like this and he his profile, um the way he runs the court and his length, you know, he he fits this league. It seems pretty apparent that Lonzo’s developing a rapport with Jared for sure. Um how has that kind of opened up a little bit for the offense and and do you think he can develop that same type of rapport with him in in the same way? Well, um, we need to without DJ is kind of like the the JA whisperer. Um, and really involves him and and you know, you know JA like you got to you got to give him handoffs to keep him like super um engaged. Um, so Lonzo’s that guy for us now. Can can get him in the pocket. Um, throws in the ball. It’s huge. Um, I think Lonzo and Evan, it’s a little bit, and I’ve talked to Lonzo about it’s a little bit like, okay, just throw the ball to Evan and go get a bucket and we get that’s not, you know, Evan Evan is better, you know, in mobility, right? Like moving offball screen or in a pick and roll. So, we we we that’s something, you know, we got to we got to iron out and get get those two on the same page. Kenny, what did you think of the shot profile balance tonight? You guys only took 40 three-pointers, but also getting to the free throw line, but also not making those as much. Yeah, I don’t, you know, I I I wasn’t I I you know, sure, we missed shots, but I don’t I don’t think the shot quality was great. Um I I did not not like and really what saved us, Don just made a lot of individual plays and Evan made individual plays, but it wasn’t um you know, kind of the ball wasn’t buzzing around. Um again that that that drop is is um something we haven’t seen a lot. You know most teams are up at the level now. Um and you can kind of get close outs but they drop and then they they stay home at shooters. So it’s good good strategy by them. Obviously Edy helps a lot in that in that you know so um you know there’s another kind of puzzle we got to figure out because we’ll see that um we’ll see that coverage again I’m sure. You talked about Mequan just having that intensity throughout the entirety of your being on the court. What is it gonna take for everybody to have that intensity? I don’t know. You know, um I think you go through I just think you go through lulls in in the season and this is this is an early lull. I thought we were I thought tonight we were going to come out with much much more energy. We didn’t. Um so, you know, I say just just you know, got to give these guys a little more um rest. We’ll practice a little later tomorrow. People can sleep in, get our legs under us. Um, you know, and I I thought there was like, you know, cognitively we weren’t there. You know, we had 22 turnovers. That’s not Again, give them a lot of credit, but that’s that’s, you know, we’ve been really taking care of the ball. So, um, Ethan, I’m going to get a better grip on this when I watch the tape and and and see uh see how we could have done better. Um, but yeah, you’re right. We got to get our we got to get our our juice back. Swan G, can you talk about the resiliency of the team tonight, especially defensively where you might have had to change how you played defense? And um can you also address Evans block? Was that something that changed the tide of the game and positioned you to actually be able to win this game? Those are a lot of good questions. So, first of all, that was a defensive player of the year block. We showed it in the locker room after after the game. Um so, that was great. Then we changed coverages. Um we were in coverage majority of the game. Then we switched to you know um you know one through five. We we switched everything. I think that helped us get get got us out of closeouts um you know we went that smaller group with Naquan that that that helped with that. So we definitely we definitely have to make some adjustments tonight defensively um because we couldn’t you know we couldn’t really stop them until the fourth quarter. And then the last beat is that the piece is there’s there’s a there’s a mental toughness to to to holding the NBA team to 16 points. There’s almost like a desperation like that’s that’s kind of the only way we can turn this game. And uh you know, credit to our our guys that they they uh they stepped up in that fourth quarter. Thank you. All right. Thanks everybody. That drop was like

Kenny Atkinson spoke to the media after a 108-100 win over the Memphis Grizzlies in Rocket Arena.