Cavs HC Defends James Harden After Game 1 Loss to Knicks, 'A Lot of It Is on the Team'

After James Harden's defensive struggles in Game 1 against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, his head coach came to his defense.

Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said he was more concerned about the team's backline defense rather than the perimeter.

"That's the NBA," Atkinson told reporters. "One thing about James, I'll just defend him. He's a good isolation defender. Always has been. He's super smart. He's got great hands. I was kind of a little more upset with our backline defense. He had a couple, two or three really tough shots on him, but then I think the baseline drive where our low guy didn't come over and get a contest. This is team defense. At this level, it's team defense. Are we helping, sending them in the right direction? I know everybody's putting it on James, but I'd say a lot of it is on the team, our team defense. Some of it was him. There was a couple blow bys. But I'd argue it was on the team defense, too."

The Cavs appeared to have Game 1 in the bag after leading big halfway through the fourth, but the Knicks mounted a 22-point comeback to force overtime and eventually win the game.

A big part of New York's comeback included a tremendous run from Jalen Brunson, who had 15 points in the fourth quarter. After the game, Knicks head coach Mike Brown revealed that New York was targeting Harden late in the game.

"Just like we have to figure out different ways to guard Harden and [Donovan] Mitchell, they have to find ways to guard Jalen," Brown told reporters. "It was no secret: We were attacking Harden."

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Harden has carried the label of a bad defender for most of his career, though he's likely better than most give him credit for. On Tuesday, it was rough.

ESPN's Vincent Goodwill noted that Brunson shot 7-of-11 when being guarded by Harden, compared to 8-of-18 when being guarded by anyone else on the Cavs. Brunson is one of the best offensive talents in the league, and he's going to get his points no matter what, but Harden made things much easier in Game 1.

The former MVP also didn't necessarily make up for his defense on the other end. He finished with just 15 points on a lackluster 5-of-16 from the field, turning the ball over six times.

Harden has been inconsistent throughout the playoffs so far, and he'll need to give Donovan Mitchell a little more help moving forward if the Cavs want to move on to the Finals for the first time since 2018.