Cavs at Raptors | Kenny Atkinson Post Game | 11.24.2025

Cavs at Raptors | Kenny Atkinson Post Game | 11.24.2025

Kenny, what do you take away from a game where you have so many guys out like you did tonight? Just um I think your your standard standard is your competition level and I thought we competed um I thought we competed defensively. Gave us a chance. Um obviously didn’t shoot it well, but um and I I really liked our our bench. You know, again, Naqucoin, I thought Chris Livingston came in and did a did a hell of a job. Um, so you know, there are some positives. Um, obviously, damn, we we we had a tough time, you know, stopping Ingram. He had he he had some tough shots, 5’11 from three. So, um, but I like I liked our spirit. I liked how we competed. Um, you I felt like we had to go with an extended bench. Uh, play those guys longer. Um, we just needed fresh legs tonight. Um, and again, I I liked our our compete level. What did you think about the quality of looks that you guys were able to create? Yeah, there were some, you know, if I was going to take a guess, there probably five or six I wish we didn’t take, you know, we could um we could work it around a little more and and get a better shot. And that, you know, that that counts in a game like this, right? Um so, we got to keep looking at it. Um, we definitely want to get um get him up from three. We want to get good looks, but it definitely probably five or six. We could have could have made another pass or maybe drove it, you know, drove it, got another paint touch and and and got a little easier shot. And you mentioned Aquin. I know we talked about him before the game, but he played almost 32 minutes tonight. Just what can having I can’t take him off the floor, Dan. It’s like, you know, you want him on the floor cuz he he can he’s he can defend his position. He’s got great energy. Um, you know, he’s fly, you know, especially in a game like this where it’s a speed game. Um, he can get back in transition. He can do damage in offensive transition. So, um, man, I’m I’m just, uh, pinching myself cuz, um, that guy’s going to help us. He’s going to I mean, it feels like he’s going to help us in big games. Um, he’s, uh, um, I feel like he, um, he really belongs even with those starters out there. um he he um he he fits with those guys. We’re about now a quarter of the way through the season and I realize that you guys haven’t necessarily been whole at all this year, but where do you think knowing what you know now you guys need to improve the most moving forward? Oh, um that’s a good question. I’d say probably our Yeah, you know, we we can we we can find better shots, I think. you know, keep um and and the big part of that is our spacing. I think, you know, especially when we’re down some guys, our spacing has to be um almost perfect and and uh right now we’re still still trying to figure it out cuz with spacing comes our cutting principles. A lot of things come off that. So, you know, spacing, get the spacing better. Um and our shot selection will will improve. Chris, um, Evan only got seven shot attempts tonight. Was there something that Toronto was doing to kind of limit that? No, I I don’t, you know, um I don’t think Evan had the juice tonight, you know, um been playing a lot of minutes. We’ve been playing them a lot of minutes. Just some nights like that where um you know um they were putting their fives on on our wings, so we had to get them involved, you know. So, um you know, one of those nights, um you know, but you know, my coach in colleges used to say, you know, um that ball comes off the rim 60% of the time. So, you know, you got to go and rebound. He could, you know, we got to rebound it better. He’s got to rebound it better. Um but they did a good job on him. Um what did you sense with him that that made you believe that he didn’t have the juice tonight? What did you see? I mean, I don’t think a lot of I don’t think Don had great, right? Like, we’ve been we’ve been milking these guys, like, you know, and I knew coming into this game it was going to be it was going to be a a tough one. You know, they’ve been sitting at home, you know, our third, you know, three and four. We played the most games in the league. Um, I’m not, you know, not concerned or anything. I I I knew coming into this game this wasn’t going to be easy, especially for our guys that that that have been playing big minutes. Um, you know, obviously Don, you could argue the same thing. He didn’t have his normal normal energy, normal juice, normal legs. It happened. Um, that’s why we we played the bench longer. Um, if I look back, I could you could argue you could have played those guys less. You know, played our bench more. Tonight, we needed fresh legs and fresh bodies. That was what this game was about. Um, you know, unfortunately, we didn’t make our threes. you know, make our threes, you know, we, you know, different story throughout the course of the season. Kenny, what are you sensing with Larry Nance Jr. in terms of him getting acclimated to this group? You know, with Larry, it’s it’s um, you know, finding his niche right now. You know, I think we played him a lot at the four. I’d love to get him at the five more. Um, I think that’s that’s where he can really help us and he understands that, too. Um, but I think, you know, since he’s sat those couple games, I think he’s since he’s been back, he’s been pretty pretty good. Um, again, when we’re playing these East Coast teams that are that are up and down and and playing in transition all the time, we decide to go, you know, with one big only. Um, so that that hurts him a little. Um, but I think he’s starting to catch catch a little bit of a flow right now. Uh, yes. Uh coach uh a question related to uh to the game if you allow me related to your background as a as a coach. Uh yeah, last year you were talking about the impact that your time in Spain had in your actual uh coaching career. I want to ask you in particular about your your time in Salamanca with coach Pedro Martinez, you know, one of the most reputated coaches in Spain. Yeah. What did you learn from him? And also if you are there if do you have any set play in your playbook? Uh from Pedro. Listen, Pedro is a great coach. You know, I played for Veno Duro in in uh in uh in Zamora and and so that was most of my time with Fernando Merchante who is a great coach. But um Pedro um all us NBA coaches learn from him. I I watch him on, you know, you his teams are um always cutting edge. He’s had a big influence on on global basketball. Great great coach. Um you know, but um there great great I I still watch his um um his teams play. Um just a ton of respect for for uh for him as a coach. Yeah. And and as a as a quick followup, uh do you Yeah. is still watching watching him and and and things like that. But do you use any you have in your playbook still like any still play or whether if he whether if he’s with Pedro or not from P or not any Yeah, he has some offense concepts that we steal from him. Um I’m not going to tell you which ones because I don’t want to give anybody a hint. But um um him and I I watch, you know, I watch a Euro a lot of Euro League games, Spanish league games, especially in the off season and I’m always learning. But um yeah, I’ve stolen a few things from his his concepts, especially on offense. Great. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks everybody.

Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Kenny Atkinson spoke with the media following a 110-99 loss to the Toronto Raptors on November 24, 2025 at Scotiabank Arena.