The night after coaching Cleveland to a 136-117 victory over Golden State — a team where he won a championship as an assistant — Kenny Atkinson couldn’t be happier with the impressive record of his Cleveland Cavaliers.
“The Warriors, that was a unique game. This is a [special] back-to-back. But you’re a competitor, right? And even [Friday], I was like, ‘Man, I wanted that game,’ because you had such great experience with the team you were with, but you also want to beat them,” said Atkinson who led the Cavs to an unblemished 11-0 record with a 105-100 victory over the Nets on Sunday night, the same franchise that let him go in 2020.
“And it’s the same with the Nets. Wonderful experience I had, but there’s always something, a little something extra when you’ve been with a team before. A little more awareness, a little more tension, a little more … you want it a little more,” he continued via The New York Post.
Darius Garland poured in 27 points, and Evan Mobley added 23 as the Cavaliers cruised over the Warriors on Friday night, making NBA history as the first team to win its first 10 games while scoring at least 110 points in each.
Atkinson leading the Cavaliers to a perfect start to the season
David Richard-Imagn Images
Kenny Atkinson’s dynamic offense has been a perfect match for Cleveland, as the team leads the league in points per game with 124.5 and boasts a .526 field goal percentage.
Under former coach J.B. Bickerstaff, now with Detroit, the Cavaliers averaged 112.6 points and shot .479 from the field last season, despite having the same top nine players. They were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the eventual champion Boston Celtics.
The only major change made by general manager Koby Altman was hiring Atkinson, who had spent three years as an assistant under Steve Kerr with the Warriors.
Atkinson’s fast-paced style quickly earned the approval of All-Star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell. Having worked with current Cavaliers players Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert during his head coaching tenure in Brooklyn, the transition was even more effortless.
Leveraging Cleveland’s depth has proven effective during the team’s best start in franchise history. Ten players are averaging at least 15 minutes per game, with none exceeding 30 minutes.
Not even the Cavs final form
Despite building a 41-point lead by halftime at 83-42 — the eighth largest in NBA shot clock era history — and matching the team record for points in a half, several Cavaliers players pointed out that they still haven’t reached their peak.
The Cavs have shot better than its opponents in every game, though it has only won the rebounding battle four times. The Cavs also committed 19 turnovers, which led to 30 points for the Warriors.
Kenny Atkinson faced a long road to success. Before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers, his only other NBA head coaching role was with the Brooklyn Nets, where he led the team to a 118-189 record over four seasons.
The 57-year-old took over the Nets and led them to the playoffs with Allen and LeVert still on the roster, only to have his progress halted. Atkinson coached Brooklyn for parts of four seasons, from 2016 to 2020.
