Openverse
The Cleveland Cavaliers are one loss away from being eliminated in the Eastern Conference Finals. Down 3-0 to the New York Knicks, each game in the series has looked worse for the Cavs than the last.
Kenny Atkinson has done a solid job getting his team this far – earning a fourth seed in the East is no small feat – but his postgame comments after Game 3 aren’t likely to win him many fans heading into the offseason.
Asked what’s gone wrong and how Cleveland might turn things around, Atkinson pointed to the underlying numbers.
“Analytically…we’re two out of three in the expected [score],” Atkinson told reporters. “I don’t know if you guys follow that, the expected score. And I know you’re looking confused.”
Confused? Not exactly.
“Analytically…we’ve won 2 out of 3”
— Kenny Atkinson pic.twitter.com/5Em0cDMFTK
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) May 24, 2026
Expected points are a real metric, and sure, you could use them to argue the Cavs played well in two of three games. The problem is that expected points don’t go on the scoreboard. Actual points do. Atkinson knows this, too.
“I know no one wants to hear that,” he said. “[With the] general public, everyone is outcome-based.”
Right – because trophies and championship rings don’t get handed out for metrics. If you’re not outcome-based, coaching an NBA team might not be the right fit.
Hart and Atkinson Couldn’t Be Further Apart on Analytics
While Atkinson is leaning on expected scores, the Knicks are three wins from their first NBA Finals appearance in over 30 years. And Knicks guard Josh Hart has a very different take on the whole analytics conversation.
“I’m never a huge analytics guy. At a certain point, they are a lamp post to a drunk person. You can lean on them, but it won’t get you home,” Hart told reporters after Game 2 – a line that sent teammate Karl-Anthony Towns into fits of laughter.
Josh Hart hates analytics:
"They're lamp posts to a drunk person. You can lean on them, but it won't get you home"
KAT couldn't believe what he said 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/8FDi81GNDC
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) May 22, 2026
“At a certain point, you got to have a good feel for the game,” Hart added..
That feel for the game is something Atkinson hasn’t shown much of in this series. It certainly wasn’t there in Game 1, when the Cavs let a 22-point fourth-quarter lead slip away in one of the more painful series-opening losses in recent playoff memory.
Now, with elimination looming, there’s little sign he’s looking to change his approach.
