The Cavaliers have had a lesson driven home the hard way: a huge lead is not safe just because it looks safe.
Over three of their last six games, Cleveland has watched 20-plus point advantages disappear, a stretch that reaches back to last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. The latest setback came when the Cavs coughed up a 29-point lead against Philadelphia, and Kenny Atkinson said the team has spent time confronting the issue head-on.
“It happens,” said Kenny Atkinson. “The timing hasn’t been great, but just in general, I would say with all of the variance in the way the NBA is played today - it’s something we had to address and keep talking about it.”
Atkinson pointed out that Cleveland is hardly alone. Two days before the Cavs’ collapse against Philadelphia, Boston lost a big lead in its opener against Detroit. And while Cleveland has had its own painful memory from Game 1 of the Conference Finals against New York, Atkinson noted that the Spurs’ Game 4 Finals collapse against the same opponent was even more brutal.
That backdrop led to a different kind of teaching moment. Rather than dwell only on their own film, the Cavs also studied examples from outside the NBA, including the World Cup.
“We showed the guys some clips of the World Cup of England when they had that lead against Argentina - they were pushing forward, being aggressive, and then they just kind of went back,” said Atkinson. “The message to the guys was we have to keep attacking.”
That’s the central point for Cleveland. Once a team gets ahead, the temptation is to ease off, shorten the game, and try to protect the cushion. Atkinson says that instinct can be the exact wrong move.
“Your natural inclination is to hold back and slow down… but I think every team makes that mistake; they become passive when you have to keep attacking.”
Still, this isn’t just about energy or mindset. The Cavs’ collapses have shown up in the details that decide games: turnovers, extra possessions, and shot-making swings from deep.
“I think we know what hurts leads,” said Atkinson. “Turnovers, the other team’s offensive rebounding, and of course, the three-point variance - so those are the things we can control, but also switch the mentality to be more aggressive.”
In other words, Cleveland’s fix is simple to say and hard to execute: keep attacking, keep defending, and don’t let a big lead turn into a warning sign.
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