Kenny Atkinson clarifies his "analytically" comments from the series against the Knicks

Kenny Atkinson clarifies his "analytically" comments from the series against the Knicks originally appeared on The Sporting News.
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

During the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks, it was clear that the latter was having a dominant run. The Cavaliers could not match them, but head coach Kenny Atkinson had a different opinion.

He believed that, through advanced analytics, they should have won more games than they did. Unfortunately, that backfired on him and the Cavaliers because they got swept by the Knicks.

Kenny Atkinson speaks about his "analytically" comments from the 2026 ECF

As the head coach of the Cavaliers, he drew a lot of backlash because they are clearly losing despite what the analytics said. Some people felt that he was being dismissive of the Knicks' success, which motivated them even further.

Even Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns took a jab at the Cavs' head coach. However, he made sure to say it after the Knicks won the championship because it was the right time to do so rather than doing it right after the ECF.

MORE: Karl-Anthony Towns takes a jab at Kenny Atkinson's "analytically" comment

The Cavaliers played their first game against the Knicks since that series, so Atkinson made sure to clarify what he meant during that time.

"The context was not taken into account. It's a little bit of a lesson for me, like you can take a little soundbite… 99% of my comments were about how they dominated us. They were by far the better team. I answered the question, but in no sense was it 'We deserve to be winning,'" Atkinson said ahead of the Cavs' loss to the Knicks in the 2026-27 regular season.

While that is a good clarification, it probably won't matter to the Knicks. They won the series without much issue, so they will be happy with their championship while the Cavs have been left behind in their matchups against each other.