Kenny Atkinson claimed that he didn’t view his return to Brooklyn — where he was fired — with the best team in the NBA as vindication.
But the competitive Atkinson came back carrying a chip on his shoulder and made his return a triumphant one.
No, make that a dominating one.
The Nets — who announced their intention to tank by trading Dennis Schroder — underscored that with a horrific 130-101 loss to Atkinson’s Cavaliers in front of 16,588 at Barclays Center.
“Dennis is gone. So that’s out of my mind. I don’t care. I love him, I’m happy for him, but he’s not here,” Jordi Fernandez said. “So right now, I’m fighting with my guys, and the ones that are here, they’ll have to fight. And they don’t fight, there’s gonna be consequences.”
The guys left didn’t show any fight.
Cam Johnson had 22 points and five assists, but the Nets shot just 42 percent and committed 22 turnovers to hand Cleveland 34 points.
“They were forcing turnovers and scoring in that manner, getting out scoring, hitting 3s. Those were deflating,” Johnson said. “ So we didn’t punch back the way we should have and our energy kind of went south. Yeah, I’d agree with that.”
Some would say this one was over as soon as the Nets (10-16) dealt away their starting point guard and emotional leader on Sunday.
But it really was over in the first quarter.
The Nets led 12-5 just four minutes in after a Nic Claxton dunk, but proceeded to allow an eye-watering 32-5 run over the rest of the period.
They were also on the wrong end of a 12-0 blitz over 2 ½ minutes in the second quarter.
Caris LeVert — an ex-Net who had been with Atkinson — had 19 for the Cavs.
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The rest of the game was garbage time.
At least for the Nets, who trailed by 37 multiple times in the fourth quarter.
Trendon Watford re-injured his left hamstring.
Ben Simmons had 10 points and eight assists in a season-high 31 minutes but the Nets’ attack was dismal.
Claxton was a minus-24 and spacing with Simmons was an issue.
“We just didn’t play hard enough. We just didn’t fight. We didn’t take care of the ball, we just did everything wrong honestly,” Claxton said. “In the first half, we definitely didn’t fight. Maybe in the second half a little bit, but we just got to flush that out. That was like a nightmare game for us.”
The Nets have dropped six out of seven, and without Schroder the tank is clearly in full force.
But while they’re tanking, the coach they fired is winning.
Atkinson’s Cavs improved to a league-best 23-4.
And his return was sweet, if not quite vindication.
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“I don’t look at it that way. I just look at it as part of the story, right, part of your growth,” Atkinson said. “You have good things happen, you have setbacks, and — it’s like a player how do you bounce back? And it was definitely a bounce back. And in the long run, the journey after Brooklyn really helped me, helped me grow as a coach. Who knows? If that doesn’t happen, maybe I’m not Cleveland; I don’t improve as much as a coach if that didn’t happen. So I look at it more as a positive.
“Now, but I will tell you, I’m competitive, right? And when you have setbacks, you remember things, right? And players do the same thing. If something happened or a team beat you or you get fired, you’re motivated. You’re motivated to prove people wrong; and that’s kind of how I took it. It’s a chip on your shoulder or whatever you want to call it. But there’s definitely some of that. I think any competitor feels the same way.”
Atkinson coached the Nets from 2016-20, the last season spent with Kyrie Irving in and out of the lineup and Kevin Durant sidelined altogether with a ruptured Achilles.
Irving was vocal about not needing a hard-driving coach, and Atkinson was gone before the end of that season.
Now he’s winning while the Nets are tanking.
