Kenny Atkinson: Refs Let Physicality Cross the Line in Cavs’ Game 1 Loss

Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson wasn’t making excuses. He was merely suggesting that perhaps the officials let too much go during their Game 1 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.

Now, along with Darius Garland (toe), the Cavs could be without Evan Mobley (ankle) and De’Andre Hunter (finger). Game 2 is Tuesday at Rocket Arena.

“Indiana deserved that. They outplayed us. They were the more physical team,” Atkinson told reporters Monday, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “But I will say there were two plays in that game that, I don’t think they were dirty plays, but I think it passed a line of physicality. That line we’ve kind of been talking about where it became excessive.”

Mobley suffered his ankle injury in the fourth quarter, when he landed on the foot of Pacers center Myles Turner after hitting a mid-range hook shot.

“Turner contests his two-point shot, comes clearly under him and shooters need space to land,” Atkinson said. “(Mobley) is pushed off balance in our opinion and tweaks his ankle pretty bad. I think you guys saw him limping the rest of the game. There was a big push to get him out. He wanted to stay in.”

As Fedor pointed out, that play took place with about 8 minutes left in the game and Mobley attempted just one more shot the rest of the way. Atkinson was correct — Mobley’s limp was obvious.

Then there’s the Hunter injury.

It came just moments after the injury to Mobley, when Hunter went up for a dunk off the break. He was met at the rim by Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin. Hunter hit the ground hard. Mathurin stood over him. Atkinson challenged the play, but it was ruled a clean block. Adding insult to injury, the ball was ruled to have hit Hunter before it went out of bounds.

“I’m just in shock,” Atkinson said about the lack of a call. “I guess I’ve gotta know the rules better. Maybe I don’t know the rules. I felt he got absolutely obliterated.”

Atkinson added that he’s reviewed both plays multiple times since the end of Game 1.

“It’s unfortunate for us,” he said. “I don’t think this is on Indiana. I have so much respect for how they play. They’re hard-playing dudes. I think that’s on the referees. Maybe they were missed calls or maybe I’m misinterpreting the rules. But I have a problem when we got two of our best players doubtful for tomorrow’s game, it’s hard for me to get my head around that. There were no calls on either one.

“I haven’t talked about referees all year. I think the referees in this league are phenomenal and they do a great job, and that was a darn good crew that did last night, ton of respect for those guys. But for some reason, it bothers me that we’re dealing with this. At least there should be some repercussions in terms of making the call.”

For the record, Hunter indicated after Game 1 that he would be ready for Tuesday night. Mobley took more of a wait-and-see approach.

“I just came down wrong a little bit,” he said Sunday. “Right now, it’s all good. See how it feels (Monday). Get some treatment and move forward from there.”

And yes, for the record, Atkinson used both “questionable” and “doubtful” to describe the status of Mobley and Hunter.

“That’s semantics, right? Questionable is questionable. Whatever. Let’s put it in that,” Atkinson said. “To me, in my world, doubtful and questionable live in the same world. So maybe I’m using, I should use the official NBA kind of thing. … I’m not going to expand on it. Obviously, a real concern.”

Oh, yeah. Garland? Remains a mystery. He’s missed three straight with that sprained big toe.

“We just did shootaround today, so it was tough to really gauge kind of where he is,” Atkinson said of Garland. “So yeah, he’ll be questionable, too, for tomorrow.”

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