Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson is ‘taking suggestions’ on fixing three-point defense

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t found their usual consistency on the defensive end this season. When asked about why that’s been the case before Friday’s game against the Sacramento Kings, head coach Kenny Atkinson pointed to one thing: Three-point defense.

“We’re number one in taking away [shots at] the rim in the last 15 [games]… we got two elite shot blockers,” Atkinson said. “[We have to] somehow bring their (three-point) percentages down.

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“I’m taking suggestions.”

Three-point defense has been one of the main problems for the Cavs. They rank last in opponent three-point percentage this season, as teams are converting 38.2% of their outside shots against them. Atkinson is trying to figure out what has led to this.

“We’re looking at all things,” Atkinson said. “What’s their shot quality? How can you get their shot quality down? How can we contest better? How can our jump height be better at the contest? What hand are we putting up?”

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Opponent three-point shooting is complicated. Good defense doesn’t always get rewarded, while bad defensive possessions can be bailed out by a lucky miss. Atkinson alluded to their recent win against the Charlotte Hornets as a situation where their opponent just missed shots. The numbers would seem to suggest this.

Charlotte went just 8-47 from three (17%). Of those 47 outside attempts, 30 of them came with no defender within six feet at the time of the shot, and they only hit five of them (16.7%), according to the NBA’s tracking data. On the season, the Hornets are connecting on 40.1% of their wide-open three-point shots, which is good for the sixth-best percentage in the league. Wednesday’s game was an outlier.

“There’s a lot of pieces to that,” Kings head coach Doug Christie said when asked about what leads to a team being good at defending the three-ball. He then listed three things that could make this an issue….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/cavs-head-coach-kenny-atkinson-013125509.html

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Publish date : 2026-01-24 01:31:00

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