That was a soul-sucking loss for the Cleveland Cavaliers. To go from a 22-point lead with roughly seven minutes left in the fourth quarter to an overtime loss is beyond demoralizing. Those who chose to engage in the toxic social media spaces had all of their darkest thoughts validated in a maddening echo chamber.

Count me among those who went to bed depressed and wondering where it all went wrong.

Spoiler: it went wrong in a lot of areas during those final seven minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime.

One of the common themes in the doomsday discourse centered around James Harden. It feels like the Cavaliers community operates in absolutes when it comes to Harden; either the Cavaliers were geniuses for bringing him in, or he needs to be launched out of a cannon into the surface of the sun.

But Harden in Game 1 was the victim of the true culprit behind Cleveland’s collapse: Kenny Atkinson.

Atkinson saw what every viewer saw, or at least he should’ve. The New York Knicks identified Harden as the weak point defensively and spammed the same action repeatedly, high screen-and-rolls designed to force Harden onto an island against one of the league’s most methodical isolation scorers in Jalen Brunson.

The result was predictable.

Brunson scored 13 of his 38 points during the final seven minutes. Because Harden was on the receiving end of much of that scoring run, many fans immediately threw his name into the conversation about why the Cavaliers blew the game.

But Harden became the scapegoat for a disaster-class coaching performance from Atkinson in the fourth quarter.

The Knicks closed the game on a staggering 44-11 run. During that collapse, Atkinson held onto his timeouts while watching a 22-point lead shrink to five with three minutes remaining.

There were no noticeable defensive adjustments for far too long. The Cavaliers continued allowing Harden to get dragged into the same matchup over and over again, turning him into the basketball version of a “barbecue chicken” alert. It also took far too long for Cleveland to start trapping Brunson and forcing the ball out of his hands.

And by the time the Cavaliers finally adjusted, the Knicks were already one step ahead. Mike Brown countered by replacing Josh Hart, who had struggled from three, with Landry Shamet to improve spacing and punish the extra help defense.

Meanwhile, Atkinson; who had spent the first three quarters adjusting effectively on both ends of the floor, suddenly looked like a deer in headlights.

After the game, Atkinson’s explanation only added to the frustration. Instead of fully owning the collapse, phrases like “unlucky” were tossed around while avoiding accountability for timeout management and the lack of decisive adjustments that may have helped stabilize the game.

It’s not Harden’s fault that he was repeatedly left isolated defensively possession after possession. At some point, a coach has to recognize what is happening and react.

Atkinson didn’t.

He didn’t make substitutions. He didn’t implement meaningful defensive changes. He didn’t even call a timeout to regroup while the game spiraled out of control.

Fans blamed what they saw on the screen: Harden getting hunted.

They should be blaming what they didn’t see: Kenny Atkinson responding with decisive coaching action.