Cavs vs Celtics | Kenny Atkinson Post Game | 11.30.2025

Cavs vs Celtics | Kenny Atkinson Post Game | 11.30.2025

D. Go ahead, Danny. Kenny, the end of the game situation that inbounds, what look were you trying to trying to get to Evan in the paint? What was the rational behind Evan or behind Don and throwing the ball in? Um, we were trying to because our best passer in that situation with, you know, with Lonzo, we usually have uh torn out. Wanted to get Evan the paint touch. Um, Seal, he got the shot off, you know, free throw line shot. You guys fell down by believe it was 21 in the third quarter tonight. What did you think was the biggest issue that led to that? Uh probably offensive rebounding and shot making those two things they, you know, when they did miss, you know, they’re getting the offensive rebound. I think they had 15 for the game, so that’s a lot. But I loved I loved our fight coming back. I loved um how we shared the ball. Um that comeback. You know, you’re down 21. We could have went could have went the other way. I’ve seen that. Um, so I I liked our competitive spirit. Um, had some guys off the bench come in to help. Tyrese was really good. Um, you know, we made a we made a run at it. You know, had a had a had a chance. Gave us gave ourselves a chance. So, I I like I liked our spirit. I liked our fight. Evan Mobley has been scoring the ball more efficiently recently at 27 points tonight. What has led to that change? Um, listen, I think, uh, you know, he’s getting the ball in better spots. I think he’s, um, we call it he’s reading the swarm when teams are swarming the the paint now. I think he’s making a better better decisions, kicking it out, kicking it to shooters. Um, yeah, I mean, you know, Evan’s just got a, you know, he’s a guy that’s a great decision maker with the ball. Um, and I think right now he’s finding finding that balance between, you know, kind of bullying to the rim and and and kicking out for for easy shots. And then, uh, Darius Garland had a slower start to the game, started scoring the ball a lot in the fourth quarter. What led to that? First of, like I’ve said before, you know, this is going to take some time. I love that he um I mean, he showed signs of being the old DG. I felt like towards the end of the game, speed was there. he’s getting to the rim. Um, you know, obviously in the beginning of the game it wasn’t wasn’t as smooth. Um, so that’s part of us getting on track, him him getting on track. So that was a real positive sign. Um, you know, I think he was part of part of the group that led led to comeback. Mark, what makes Payton Pritchard so hard to defend? Yeah, he’s he’s good. He’s he’s he’s strong. You know, he’s got the mid-range now. he get get in the lane and and and kind of bully you and and and do this little push off thing and get that too and then obviously deep deep three-point shooter. Um you know really turned himself into a heck of a player. It feels like Don is kind of picks and chooses his times to get really aggressive offensively. We saw at the beginning of the fourth and kind of towards the end feel like sometimes you need to get Donald not more involved cuz he’s obviously involved in everything but he needs to be a little more aggressive earlier on. No, I I think he was making a listen that they were loading up on it. It was pretty obvious his strategy, right? And there and let other guys beat you. And I I don’t know. We could we could have him go into four guys and and and try to do that. and forest head. I I just love and DG too and and and Evan like they got to keep trusting our guys. If they’re going to, you know, muck off our our our role players, we we got to keep trusting the pass, keep playing the right way. Um, you know, you could you could, you know, could argue the other way, right? Just keep keep bullying, go one-on-ree. That’s not not what I want our guys to do. So, I I was happy that they we made the right play most of the time. So, you like the offensive process tonight? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think our decision- making was good. Um, you know, um, again, there’s a you got to, you know, take what the defense gives you, basically. Um, if you don’t, it can it can turn into a, um, you know, um, not so good. But I I thought, you know, defense obviously there were two things with rebounding and then and then the free throw disparity. I don’t I don’t know even what what the what the free throw disparity was in the second half. 21 to nine. Someone says something. So, you know, that’s where we kind of lost the game, free throws and and and rebounding. But, uh, listen, the great thing about the NBA, we got another shot at it tomorrow night. We’re going through it a little bit, you know, three losses in a row. The sky is not falling. I think we got we got a lot of things going on, you know, and and uh, you know, I trust this group, love this group. We’ll we’ll uh, we’ll go get one tomorrow. Chief, actually coaches on Tom, uh, you talked about balance before the game. He had 52 triples and three-point attempts and 13 free throw attempts. Uh, were you happy with your guys aggression? Again, um, I think they did a a good job packing the paint and and you know, there’s obviously teams leaving guys open on the perimeter. Um, and and you know, we got we just got to keep making the right play. Um, you know, and that that was part of us getting in as usual. We obviously weren’t making threes. Um, but um, like I said, I don’t the pain is packed. You got to you got to you got to get in. I do like we’re getting paint touches. We’re getting in there. They suck in. We got to we got to find shooters and let it fly. Kenny Tyrese just came in the fourth quarter. Had five quick ones to help you guys out. What did you see from him to come into a game like that? Oh man, I thought he changed the energy. um on both ends, right? Offensively, um offensively really good. Hit that wing three over on the right. He was part of the comeback crew. I I felt like um and then defense, he’s you know um he’s a heck of a competitor. He’s going to be a heck a really good player in this league. And I apologize you answered this already, but Darius obviously in the fourth quarter comes alive as kind of the player that you guys have envisioned for him. How good is his team when he’s like that? Super positive. I think that’s that’s one of the positive takeaways of this game where um you know he’s still trying to find his rhythm, still find trying to find his his groove. Um and I felt like you know fourth quarter it was the old Darius. He was at the rim a lot. He was in the paint a lot um making making really good decisions. So real positive sign for us. Okay. All right. Thanks everybody. Appreciate it. came about.

Kenny Atkinson spoke to media following a 115-117 loss to the Boston Celtics in Rocket Arena.