NBA
Cavaliers’ Kenny Atkinson won’t blame refs for Game 2 loss to Pacers despite mistakes
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All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated2 hours ago on May 09, 2025
Even though the Cavaliers have complained about officiating during the NBA Playoffs, coach Kenny Atkinson recently said that his team won’t dwell on missed calls by referees, even though the league admitted that there were three incorrect non-calls in the final minute of Game 2 against the Pacers.
The Cleveland tactician was well aware of the mistakes by the officials, one of which led to Tyrese Haliburton‘s winning 3-pointer in Indiana’s 120-119 victory on Tuesday, but he simply doesn’t want to waste time in something in cannot change. The NBA said the rival star should have been called for a lane violation with 12.4 seconds remaining.
Nevertheless, the NBA’s Coach of the Year revealed he has bigger worries to address as the Cavaliers had lost their lead and stood by as the Pacers dropped 8 points in the final minute of Game 2 to take home the win. “I think we always have recency bias. So what happened in the last 30 seconds?”
“It’s like, how’d you lose that 20-point lead,” Kenny said after Thursday’ practice. “I’d say it was coaching decisions, player decisions, and then referee decisions. And we all made mistakes. And then if you put it kind of a ledger, you add all those up and that their minus-20 goes to, oh my gosh.
Atkinson then added: “We had plenty of decisions where we could have made it. I’m kind of there with that.” Now the focus of the series shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Friday evening, after losing both home games in Ohio.
Rival coach Rick Carlisle also addressed officiating, explaining how mistakes are part of the game. “Look, we’re not expecting any gifts from the refs and I don’t think we got any in the first two games. I know they disagreed with some calls, it’s all part of it,” he said.
Haliburton then praised his team’s unwillingness to lose. “We just have a resilient group, man,” he said after scoring 19 points on Wednesday. “We just figure out ways to win. We don’t give up. We’re battle-tested as a group. We’ve basically been together for about two years now and that continuity has been really good for us.”
