2 Cavs most to blame for Game 1 OT loss to Knicks

The Cleveland Cavaliers looked as though they had flipped a switch when they took care of business in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Detroit Pistons. Heading into their Conference Finals clash against the New York Knicks, the Cavs, despite being the underdog, were definitely not a team that anyone was going to count out.

And for a good chunk of Game 1, the Cavs proved that they can indeed hang with a Knicks team that has been quite dominant since Game 4 of their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks. They were even up by 22 points with 7:45 remaining in the fourth quarter, and appeared to be well on their way to taking a series lead — which is quite an incredible feat for a team that’s struggled on the road throughout this year’s playoffs.

However, a game is never over until the final buzzer sounds, and the Cavs learned that the hard way. They took their foot off the gas pedal and the Knicks came storming back — with Jalen Brunson scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter to lead the way for New York in a 115-104 comeback victory.

It is never a useful exercise to point fingers at who is the most to blame for a defeat of such an excruciating nature. But there are a few obvious culprits behind the Cavs’ collapse on Tuesday night.

What in the world was Kenny Atkinson doing?

There is no doubt that Atkinson is a smart head coach who has plenty of tactical nous. But there seems to be a cavalier, pun intended, attitude to the way he approached Game 1. He just watched as the Cavs allowed a 22-point disappear, with the Knicks pulling to within five points, 94-89, before he called a timeout to stop the bleeding.

It’s one thing for a coach to show trust in his players’ ability to get out of tough situations. But it is also the responsibility of a coach to prevent the team from melting down completely. It was evident that the Knicks were exploiting James Harden on the defensive end, and he allowed New York to go one on one against Harden over and over again.

A simple timeout and defensive adjustment giving Harden more help in navigating screening actions could have done a lot in preventing Brunson from getting into a roll in the fourth. Instead, Atkinson basically just hung Harden out to try and hoped that their normal coverages would work.

Atkinson said after the game that the Cavs were “unlucky” to be on the receiving end of some daggers from the Knicks. But overall, the Cavs made a mess of themselves; somebody wise once said that you create your own luck, and the Cavs definitely put themselves in a position where the Knicks can string together stops and scores.

What’s difficult about being on the receiving end of a huge run is that the Cavs needed to, more often than not, score against set defenses. This is another instance in which Atkinson calling a timeout could have helped; after the timeout, the Cavs drilled a three courtesy of Evan Mobley to push the lead back to eight.

It was even weird for Atkinson to not have relied more on someone like Max Strus, or to not have the team get the ball into Mitchell’s hands more often amid a rough night from Harden.

The series is far from over, but Atkinson has to be a lot better in navigating adversity with a bit more urgency.

James Harden cannot play this poorly for the Cavs

Harden has never been the most esteemed playoff performer. The Cavs won Game 7 despite of him, not because of him. He put up just nine points on 2-10 shooting in Game 7 in Detroit, but that scarcely mattered amid a Mitchell masterclass. But in Game 1 of the 2026 ECF, Harden’s faults were at the forefront.

In the fourth quarter, after the Cavs went up by 22 points, Harden went 1-4 from the field. He settled multiple times for difficult three-point shots. And then in overtime, Harden couldn’t get the Cavs offense to execute properly, and to top it all off, he turned the ball over in backbreaking fashion with the game getting away from them in the dying seconds of overtime.

He finished the night with just 15 points on 5-16 shooting from the field to go along with six turnovers. His poor defense has been talked about ad nauseam, but if he isn’t contributing positively on either end of the floor, then the Cavs may have to resort to the gutsy move of benching him.

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