The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-104 in overtime at Madison Square Garden to open the Eastern Conference Finals. The Cavaliers blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead. On Wednesday morning, Cleveland sports radio hosts Ken Carman and Anthony Lima unloaded on the team during their local broadcast.
The Knicks ended the game on a 44-11 run. Jalen Brunson scored 38 points and shot 15-for-29 from the field. James Harden guarded Brunson on key switches down the stretch. Harden shot 5-of-16 offensively and committed six turnovers in 42 minutes.
Carman and Lima directed their primary anger at head coach Kenny Atkinson. Atkinson refused to call a timeout while the Knicks went on an 18-1 run in the fourth quarter. The radio duo debated whether this ranks among the worst playoff failures in franchise history and compared the atmosphere to the 2018 NBA Finals, according to the Wednesday morning episode of their show.
Atkinson explained his decision to keep his timeouts during his postgame press conference.
“Yeah, I like to hold my timeouts. I didn’t want to have one timeout at the end of the game. One or two-point game, I try to hold them,” Atkinson said.
The local radio meltdown quickly drew national attention as media scrutinized the mounting pressure on the Cleveland roster, according to Fox News’ Outkick coverage.
National analysts piled on during the postgame shows. Charles Barkley reviewed the historic fourth-quarter run on TNT.
“That was a choke job. Come on, man. They started taking the air out of the ball with six minutes to go like dummies,” Barkley said.
Jason Lloyd of The Athletic and Cavaliers Executive VP Chris Kaiser joined the 92.3 The Fan broadcast later in the morning to discuss the roster’s mental toughness. The series resumes with Game 2 on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.