Cavs’ Kenny Atkinson makes pointless case that Cleveland has won ‘2 out of 3’ vs. Knicks originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers have lost all three games of the Eastern Conference Final so far to the New York Knicks.
But in his media availability on Sunday, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson used analytics to point out that by one measure, Cleveland had won “two out of three.”
Atkinson was down a tangent about expected points and about process.
And on the one hand, he’s not totally wrong. There is something to be said for doing things the way you want and hoping that leads to the best results.
It’s also a pretty brutal look, though, from down 3-0 in the series:
“Analytically…we’ve won 2 out of 3”
— Kenny Atkinson pic.twitter.com/5Em0cDMFTK
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) May 24, 2026
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The reality is that it’s a pointless argument.
Atkinson may be trying to convince himself, and his team, that they really can come back from a deficit in this series because they haven’t played as bad as 3-0 suggests.
But in truth, they haven’t played great. The Knicks have won, and the Cavs haven’t.
At the end of the day, what really is there other than that? Over the course of an 82-game regular season, process really matters. If you take the right approach on the court every night, it can result in a solid campaign.
In the playoffs, though, no one remembers the losers who might’ve had decent analytics along the way.
Atkinson can point to positive metrics all he wants.
Unless the scoreboard turns fully Cleveland’s way four games in a row, those other numbers won’t matter one bit.