On Saturday evening, the Cleveland Cavs improved to 1-1 on the 2026-27 NBA season with a narrow home win over the Brooklyn Nets. For the second straight game, the Cavs controlled things for most of the way before melting down toward the end of the game, but this time, they were able to hold on against an inferior Brooklyn squad.
After the game, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson spoke on one factor he thinks is affecting his team’s inability to hold onto leads.
“I think part of this too is we’re not in elite condition right now, which is kind of normal. Second game, getting your rhythm, we’re not there. I told the guys in the timeout we got to fight through the fatigue. I thought we had moments of fatigue,” he said, per the Cavs’ official page on YouTube, via Hoopshype.
While blown leads are more commonplace in today’s NBA than they have ever been, it’s still an alarming trend for the Cavs to have relinquished huge advantages in each of their first two games of the season, having squandered a 29-point lead en route to a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first game of the year.
This comes after the Cavs choked a historic fourth quarter lead in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Finals series vs the New York Knicks last year, going on to lose that matchup in four games.
The Cavs will certainly hope to get into better condition sooner rather than later as the season continues.
Cleveland will next hit the floor on Monday for a tough home game vs the Minnesota Timberwolves.