Kenny Atkinson calls out Pacers’ physicality amid Cavs injury woes

What is and is not playoff basketball?

CLEVELAND — Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson isn’t someone to complain about the officiating or even bring it up much. That changed on Tuesday evening before Game 2. He went out of his way to rant for six minutes about the officiating in Game 1 and the league in general when it comes to how physicality changes in the playoffs.

This isn’t who Atkinson typically is. But having multiple key players land on the injury report ahead of what is close to a must-win playoff game does that to you.

“He’s protecting his players, that’s a big part of a coach’s job,” Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said when told about what Atkinson said pregame.

Atkinson and the Cavaliers have taken issue with three plays and have notified the league as such. These plays are also why Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter aren’t expected to play in Game 2 and could be out longer.

“I want to address this,” Atkinson said when asked about the Cavs' depth. “I just want to be real clear cut on my opinion of this. ... I think there were three calls we questioned to the league. ... And in my opinion, all three plays were excessive in nature. We could all kind of debate what that means. And let me be clear, in no way am I saying that the intent by Indiana was to injure or hurt, none of that. That’s not who Rick is, that’s not who that team is.”

Atkinson then went on an extended lecture on why he believed those three plays crossed the line. This included standing up and demonstrating why Myles Turner taking away Jarrett Allen’s ability to cleanly land after his dunk crossed the line.

If you know Atkinson, this is not something he’s come close to doing at any point this season.

The main contention of Atkinson’s argument was that there’s a line between “playoff physicality” and being over the line. The blurred nature of that line is what bothers Atkinson.

“We have to decide as a league what that line is,” Atkinson said.

“What that excessive line is because tonight, the league, people out there watching TNT, all of it. ... There’s such a push in this league, ‘We want guys playing. We want healthy guys.’ ... We have to, I believe, have the same energy in terms of keeping guys healthy in the playoffs. ... We got two guys questionable...hurt during the game. I have a problem with that, quite honestly.

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“We really have to take a look. I’m part of this, I’m a stakeholder in this league, right? Itn’s not just the referees or Monty [McCutchen] or Adam [Silver], or the NBA. It’s all of us [as] stakeholders in this league. And what I want to make sure is that we have our best players playing in the playoffs.

“And it bothers me that we have a Defensive Player of the Year, All-Star, great, [in Mobey] and a great player in De’Andre Hunter that are questionable for this game. In my opinion, all three of those plays were excessive.”

Whether or not Indiana’s plays crossed that line is a matter of opinion. There is, however, a larger point that Atkinson brings up that is worth discussing.

There is an unwritten understanding that more physicality is allowed in the playoffs. But there’s a point where that physicality takes away from what we deem to be NBA basketball for the six-month regular season.

“We have to ensure that our players are playing in the playoffs,” Atkinson said. “So whatever the competition committee, NBA, all us stakeholders in the league, we have to get on a whiteboard and just draw that line. What is excessive? What’s over excessive? And to me, and this is an opinion ... [the three plays from Game 1 were] over the line in terms of excessive play.

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“I know there’s this rhetoric going around the league about, you know, ‘Oh man, that’s playoff basketball.’ To me, that’s not playoff basketball. That’s not why I watch. That’s not what I grew up watching, I grew up watching, you know, LeBron clean chase down block from behind. Steph, dribbling around and shooting threes and, you know, making great dribble moves and laying it up. Charles Barkley, hitting a guy, offensive rebound.

“That, to me, is playoff basketball. Julius Erving, scoop shot reverse. That’s playoff basketball. So this rhetoric that’s going around, you know, like, ‘Oh man, you know, we need this for us.’ I disagree.”

It’s only Game 1 of what could be a long series. This will undoubtedly not be the last thing said on physicality in this series.

Unfortunately, Mobley and Hunter might not have much of a say on how this series unfolds. And this all could’ve been avoidable in the first place.