Cavs HC Takes Blame for James Harden Struggles in Game 2 Loss to Pistons

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson took the blame for James Harden's rough night in his team's 107-97 Game 2 loss against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night.

"I'll put that on me," he told reporters (2:00) regarding Harden's 10-point, minus-11 performance. "I think the idea in the second half was to push the pace and tried to play quicker and get the ball up the court. He was doing a great job getting off it. But our offense is at the point now where if him and [Donovan Mitchell] get off it, it should come back to them at some point. I felt that didn't for both him and [Mitchell], didn't kinda circle back to him. Again, we've got to look at it, we can't have our Hall of Famer taking two shots in the second half. I'll take that one."

It continues a rough trend for Harden in his playoff career:

Atkinson is going to protect his player, but he wasn't the one who shot 3-of-13 from the field or had four turnovers to just three assists. He's not the player who had seven turnovers in Game 1 or shot 1-of-7 from three.

And he's certainly not the player whose entire career has been defined by regular-season accolades and postseason struggles.

The hope was that adding Harden would help Mitchell get past the second round of the playoffs for the first time in his career. The issue is that Harden hasn't done so since the 2017-18 season when he was still with the Houston Rockets, and has never reached an NBA Finals..

The Cavaliers are certainly far from finished, but they'll head back home in a 2-0 hole against the top-seeded Pistons. Their margin for error has grown incredibly slim.

Finding a way to get Harden more involved in the offense, especially late in the game, may help. But his playoff pedigree would suggest that what the Cavaliers have gotten in this series thus far is about what they should expect.