Cleveland’s collapse in the Knicks’ 115-104 overtime win in Game 1 was not down to just one thing, but Kenny Atkinson’s decision to hold two timeouts while the lead vanished will still be echoing around Game 2. The Cavaliers led by 22 in the fourth quarter, watched New York close regulation on a 30-8 run, and Atkinson’s postgame explanation only made the next question more obvious.
Atkinson told reporters, “I like to hold my timeouts… I didn’t want to have one timeout at the end of the game, one or two point game. I try to hold them.” It is a defensible approach in a typical late-game scenario. But with the Cavs unraveling and the Knicks never letting up, it felt less like strategy and more like a missed lifeline.
The timeout choice became part of the collapse
Cleveland led 93-71 with 7:52 left. New York closed on a 30-8 run, tied the game on Jalen Brunson’s layup with 19 seconds left, and turned the full closing stretch into a 44-11 run through overtime.
Atkinson called just one timeout during the main fourth-quarter surge, with 3:30 left, after the Knicks had already cut the lead to five. By the end of regulation, he still had two unused timeouts.
That is why the decision will not fade quickly. This was not a game that slipped away on a single play. It was a long, visible unraveling, and Cleveland never got the hard reset it clearly needed.
The offense broke before the scoreboard did
Atkinson’s most telling answer after the loss was not about the timeouts. It was about the offense. He said the ball “just stopped moving,” that Cleveland had been “pinging the ball all over the place” before it got stagnant.
That is exactly the moment when a timeout is meant to steady things.
Even Atkinson’s defense of the collapse pointed there. He cited fatigue, tougher decisions and players putting their heads down too often late. Those were not just coaching clichés. They described a team struggling to get organized possessions.
Over the final 12:45, Cleveland scored only 11 points, shot 4-for-18 and committed a string of damaging turnovers. The Cavaliers finished with 21 turnovers overall, and the first two overtime possessions followed the same pattern.
The Knicks forced Cleveland into the wrong possessions
New York did not just get hot. It changed the pressure on the ball.
Atkinson acknowledged the Knicks were blitzing and that Cleveland had to get the ball out of Donovan Mitchell’s and James Harden’s hands. That should have created easier secondary reads. Instead, the Cavaliers never got fully settled once the game started tilting.
The Knicks also went after Harden defensively. Atkinson said Cleveland adjusted by sending two to the ball and rotating behind the play, but he also admitted they were not good enough defensively in the fourth quarter.
This was not about one isolated matchup anymore. It was the cumulative effect of Cleveland defending in recovery mode and then attacking without flow.
Atkinson still backed his players, and that raises pressure on him
Coaches are supposed to protect the room, and Atkinson did that.
He said Harden has been “one of our best defenders in these playoffs” and made it clear he never considered sitting him for defense-only possessions. He also said the Cavaliers played great basketball for most of the night.
All of that can be true. It still leaves the coaching decision under a brighter light.
If the players were good enough for three quarters and then the game spun out of structure, the question becomes whether the coaching staff needed to intervene sooner and more aggressively.
Mitchell’s postgame frustration only sharpened the point. Cleveland did not treat the loss like bad luck. It treated it like a game it gave away.
That is why Game 2 starts with the timeout conversation
This is not really about whether Atkinson should have called one specific timeout at one specific second. It is about whether Cleveland can feel the game turning fast enough to stop the next avalanche before it becomes another story.
The Cavaliers do not need to relive every detail of the collapse. They do need a clearer plan for the moment when the ball starts sticking again.
Atkinson said the group has to “keep trusting the pass.” That is the basketball fix.
The coaching fix is making sure Cleveland has a hard stop available before another lead starts to dissolve in the same way.
Game 2 on May 21 is not just about whether the Cavaliers can make more shots. It is about whether Atkinson is willing to use his timeouts as a tool to protect the offense before the next run gets out of control.
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