Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Kenny Atkinson Has LATEST ON INJURIES, Reiterates ‘Excessive Contact’

Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Kenny Atkinson Has LATEST ON INJURIES, Reiterates ‘Excessive Contact’

any of your three injured guys practice today? Uh we had uh I mean it was shoot around right basically. So um they all touched the ball. They all got some reps up but we didn’t do anything live. So um they kind of participated in the walkth through and and um you know hoping hoping for the best. Joe I mean you’ve been saying that about Darius the number the other two for a day. Do you feel better today saying that? It’s just it’s so hard with these. I the only way I could answer that is like kind of gotten their their bodies. Otherwise, I’m just playing a guessing game. Um it’s you just you never know. And I I I I do think and this is just life in the NBA. I think it’s frustrating for all of us, right? Like and it’s no indictment on anybody or the play, you know, none of that. It’s just it just it’s just um you know injuries are a tough thing. Um and and and you don’t you don’t really know unless you were you were experienced it yourself. Do you expect Mobly Garland and Hunter be questionable again? Yes. Okay. And then will Donovan have any injury designation? Not that I know. No, I think I think I think he’s I think he’s um okay. Um yeah, is the one that has lingered the longest. Like what have your conversations been like? Yeah, just just what do you do? Um Chris, you support him like man, you know, um you know, get with medical, get with um your people, you know, his family obviously and and and uh I mean, he desperately wants to get on the court. Um, and it’s it’s just like kind of in these situations that I just kind of, you know, I I step back. Um, I obviously talk a lot of basketball with him otherwise, right? Like, hey, see how they’re playing to pick him up even on the on the sidelines like because he’s such a smart player, so I feed off him for that. Um, but but yeah, again, it’s just like he’s got to figure it out and I I support him like 100%, right? like whatever whatever whichever way it it goes. Um, you know, I think he’s probably feel like it’s not I got to get us to a certain point or compete at a high intensity playoff level, right? Like that’s the, you know, um, you know, that’s and like Dan, I think you said that the hard thing for us, we can’t really simulate that. We can’t simulate it. We can’t, you know, that that that type of intensity is is tough to simulate. So, um I guess at some point he’s, you know, hopefully he he’ll get out there and try it. Um and and um you know, it’ll be I don’t know how many days is it? 12 13 days. That’s the thing. Like he hasn’t had a lot of you know, he’s been conditioning like crazy. Um you know, um alter G and and the non-impact stuff, but obviously couldn’t couldn’t run or anything. Kenny, I asked this with like as much sensitivity as the situation deserves. Yeah. Is it is it Darius’s choice not to try or is this a medical thing where the medical people are saying you can’t? And Joe, that’s I think it’s it’s it’s it’s um it’s it’s all right. It’s it’s both both both pieces. You make these decisions. I I you’ve been to the doctor, right? Like you know how it goes. uh you know and they they give their recommendations and and they talk through it and you you make a decision. I mean, I’ve experienced with my son, you know, with the sprained ankle in the playoffs, like, do you play? Do you don’t play? Can you know? And and even for me as like a father, it was hard to tell him like, “No, you you got to like you, son, you have to you have to talk with the trainers, you have to talk with the doctor, and then and then only you can make the call, you know.” Um, so, um, that that’s kind of where what it is. After the game, you mentioned that the guys just felt gassed. It looked they looked gassed. I know in the regular season they were minimized in the minutes because you were able to go so deep. Do you feel like that the the stamina for them was just the the result of that game specifically or is it something you feel confident moving forward that they will be able to play 40 minutes? We’re in condition. We’re ready. Um, I do think it was it was um um you know, circumstances and and let’s face it, Indiana um you know, in terms of intensity metrics, they’re they’re by far the highest in the league. I said it before we played them. It’s different than Miami, right? Miami was low pace, slower, you know, probably more clutch and hold that type of game. And then we knew this this completely went the other way. This is this is speed and movement and and sprints. And so it’s just it’s just a different uh um you know different style of play. Um I do think we’ve we’ve after getting hit in the mouth and and taking a little while to adjust to it, we have adjusted to it. Um you know now it’s it’s it’s um you know kind of kind of fighting through that that and you know it’s not just physical right it’s your mental kind of um um fortitude and and and uh uh resiliency to fight fight through fatigue. Did you see the last two-minute report? Uh, yes, I saw it. What was your reaction to it, Chris? I I’m I’m at the point where, you know, I Let’s Let’s look at it this way. Um, you know, we were up 20. Um, and when I, you know, you talk about the last two minutes, I’m going to I’m kind of look at, well, how did we lose that 20point lead? And everything happened way before then. And I think we always have re we all do. I do too. Recency biased. What happened in the last 30? It’s like, how did you lose that 20 point lead? So, I’d say it was um coaching decisions, um player decisions, and then referee decisions. And we all made mistakes. And then if you put it in like a a kind of ledger, like you you add all those up and their minus 20 goes to, oh my gosh. So, uh you know, they obviously made mistakes. I made mistakes. Players, we had you know, plenty of decisions where we could have made it this. So that that’s just I’m kind of there with that. Um, and the only thing I will repeat I and I just adamant about this and and and uh you know what I don’t what I I I don’t like is um that excessive acts in my opinion, right? And that’s not the um um obviously the league’s opinion um can lead to any any type of you know um kind of doubt for player availability and and and you know it’s funny. I think the the referees kind of applied for the most part the rule. My question is what we got to look at um is is okay is there you know that line of excessiveness. Do we do we need to move that line? You know cuz we want we want the defensive player of the year available. We want DeAndre Hunry Hunter available. Um and and I’ll just repeat again not malice in those acts. Not not not like none of that stuff, right? like it’s just like okay, you know, if that went over the line, there should be a sanction for that. Um, you know, and and we we just, you know, um I I really hope the league goes back to competition committee and they they go in a room and they look at those plays and say, “Hey, is there something different we could have done here? Is there another, you know, can we um can we make this better?” So we we you know there’s because once you start getting into the injury I think I think that’s that’s something you really got to look at um you know as a league we have to look

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson reflects on the team’s Game 2 loss to the Indiana Pacers and provides updates on Evan Mobley, De’Andre Hunter and Darius Garland ahead of Game 3 in Indianapolis.

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