Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson considers the team's year to be a success despite a season-ending sweep in the Eastern Conference finals at the hands of the New York Knicks.
"Yes, absolutely. That was the task: take another step," Atkinson said following Monday's 130-92 Game 4 loss at home, according to Danny Cunningham of Locked on Cavs. "... We jumped a barrier that we were stuck on."
The Cavaliers reached the playoffs for a fourth straight year but hadn't advanced past the second round in that span until defeating the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in Game 7.
Their last victory in the conference finals remains Game 7 in 2018 against the Boston Celtics, when LeBron James scored 35 points to lead the franchise to a fourth straight NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, who then won in a sweep.
"I turn it positive, though. We took a step," Atkinson added, courtesy of Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. "This is kind of how this works. You have to keep climbing. We are going, obviously, in a positive direction. Fell short. There's no bigger motivator to get to the next level. Think of this offseason and development ... the sacrifice we need to make to get to the next level.
"But I'm proud of this group, in terms of how they fought through adversity. Won two Game 7s. We took a step. I think we took a step mentally, from a mental toughness point of view, so I'm going to kind of lean on that. And again, we all know there's another two steps really you've got to take - that's the ultimate goal."
Atkinson drew questions following Cleveland's loss in Game 3 when he claimed that the Cavs "analytically" won two of the first three matchups against the Knicks despite being outscored by a combined 40 points. Monday's loss expanded that to 77 points over the series, the fourth-largest total point differential of any conference finals in NBA history, per Stathead.
