Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson refuses to dwell on missed calls in Game 2 loss to Pacers

By Canadian Press on May 8, 2025.

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) — Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson refused to blame officials for what the NBA said were three incorrect no-calls in the final minute — including one that led to Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winning 3-pointer — in Indiana’s 120-119 victory over Cleveland in Game 2 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series on Tuesday night.

The NBA said Wednesday in its “Last 2-Minute Report” on the game that two lane violations and defensive 3 seconds call were missed. The NBA releases those reports the day after games where the margin is three points or fewer at any time in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime.

The league said Haliburton should have been called for a lane violation for stepping over the plane of the free throw line before the ball touched the rim on a missed foul shot with 12.4 seconds remaining with Indiana trailing 119-117.

Haliburton got the offensive rebound after it was deflected by multiple players, dribbled out to the 3-point line and made the game-winning, step-back shot from the top of the key as the Pacers rallied from a 20-point, second-half deficit to go up 2-0 in the series.

Haliburton though wasn’t the only player to commit a lane violation on the play. The NBA said multiple players entered the lane.

Atkinson — honored as the NBA’s Coach of the Year on Monday — said his bigger worries were about how the Cavs lost their lead and how Indiana scored the final eight points in 47.9 seconds to get the victory.

“I think we always have recency bias. So what happened in the last 30 seconds? It’s like, how’d you lose that 20-point lead,” Atkinson said after practice on Thursday. “I’d say it was coaching decisions, player decisions, and then referee decisions. And we all made mistakes. And then if you put it kind of a ledger, you add all those up and that their minus-20 goes to, oh my gosh. We had plenty of decisions where we could have made it. I’m kind of there with that.”

The NBA also said multiple players committed lane violations with 48 seconds remaining on a missed free throw by Indiana’s Pascal Siakam. One of the players was Aaron Nesmith, whose dunk off the rebound got the Pacers with 118-113.

Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell should have been called for a 3-second violation with 15 seconds left. That would have been a technical foul where Indiana should have been awarded one free throw as well as maintaining possession of the ball.

While Atkinson has been critical of some of the non-calls and his feeling that some of the physical play has been excessive, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle pointed out that his team has been called for nine more fouls than the Cavaliers.

The series shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Friday.

“Look, we’re not expecting any gifts from the refs and I don’t think we got any in the first two games. I know they disagreed with some calls, it’s all part of it,” Carlisle said.

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The Associated Press