Kenny Atkinson walked into the visiting coach's interview room at Crypto.com Arena on Monday night with a loss to a Los Angeles Lakers team that has been on one of the hottest runs in the league, and he did almost everything he could not to treat it like a crisis. The Cleveland Cavaliers' head coach kept coming back to the fourth quarter and, specifically, to the young group that refused to fold.
"I'll leave with one positive. Fourth quarter, those young guys TB and Larry — just phenomenal," Atkinson said. "We showed pride. Those guys played super hard. Plus 13."
Thomas Bryant and Larry Nance Jr. were the veteran cores of a late-game group that outscored Los Angeles by 13 in the final period. For Atkinson, that was the piece of tape he wanted his team to carry forward more than the first-half deficit.
"I thought the first group was stuck in mud a little bit," Atkinson said. "That group got some fresh legs in there, and those guys provided the energy we needed."
The coach was blunt about where Los Angeles had done its damage. The Lakers' offensive rebounding — nine on the offensive glass in the first half alone — dictated the night.
"I felt like their offensive rebounding really hurt us. They had nine offensive rebounds in the first half, and we lost that physical battle to begin with," Atkinson said.
Offensively, the Lakers' switching scheme did what it has been doing to opponents for the last month. Cleveland's top sets, normally clinical against switches, dissolved.
"I felt like we got stagnant," Atkinson said. "It was more of a team situation where they were switching everything, and the ball got stuck. We're getting into our offense late."
He was careful to note the Cavaliers are not usually a team that struggles against a switch.
"That's play. They switched everything, right? And we're good against the switch. Really good," he said. "I'm not going to overreact to one game."
The biggest thread running through Atkinson's postgame was the idea that injuries, rather than damaging Cleveland's rotation, are creating exactly the playoff reps the Cavaliers need from their depth. Rookie forward Jaylon Tyson — or, in Atkinson's shorthand, TP — saw extended minutes, and Craig Porter Jr.'s ball-handling repertoire was getting tested in real NBA action.
"We've tried to turn our different lineups, and the different situations we're dealing with guys out, is a positive," Atkinson said. "Naquin gets a lot of burn tonight. He's a guy we might need in the playoffs. TP, with his ball handling and skill — who knows, you might need him in the playoffs. So to get these reps, it's helping."
Shooting slumps, usually a red alert this late in the season, barely registered in Atkinson's explanation.
"No, I mean, we got, you know, Joe, we got darn good shooters," Atkinson said. "You have stretches."
What did animate him was the locker-room effect of the young-old partnership he had just watched on the floor.
"It's monumental, because if that last group gets their tails kicked — if they're minus 13 — then the spirit of the locker room is not great," Atkinson said. "For Thomas Bryant, Larry Nance Jr. to lead like that, you could be a vet and you'd be like, 'Oh man, I'm out here with these young guys,' but that was really cool to see."
That, in a season where the Cavaliers have been carrying the top seed in the East without ever quite feeling settled, was Atkinson's takeaway. Cleveland has spent the year trying to quietly broaden its rotation. Watching the youngest players in that rotation finish a game in Los Angeles plus-13 — against an opponent playing its best basketball of the year — is the kind of night Atkinson clearly plans to pocket for April.
