The Cleveland Cavaliers had just been down nine and looked dead in Detroit. Then a single three-minute stretch of regulation, a key Donovan Mitchell three out of nowhere and an overtime that featured Max Strus pulling off the steal of the postseason flipped the entire complexion of this second-round series.
The Cavaliers escaped Game 5 with a road win to take a 3-2 lead, and head coach Kenny Atkinson sat down afterwards sounding less like a man relieved to survive and more like one who finally has the data point he has been chasing all year.
"We just made big plays. We're down eight, down nine. I think that stretch right there says a lot about our progress — our mental-performance progress, our mental-toughness progress," Atkinson said. "Kept at it. Evan Mobley, huge plays. Max Strus, huge plays. And then regulation didn't end great. And these guys, they don't ever get down. Great demeanour, great leadership from Donovan and Evan and James."
Mental toughness has been a recurring talking point with this Cavaliers core through several recent postseasons. Atkinson, asked directly what a win like this does for that conversation, did not hedge.
"You hope it propels us. You hope it galvanises us. You hope, again, we carry it forward. This was a battle-tested win against a heck of a team on the road. You build mental toughness over games like this. You build thicker skin, all that. Fouls going each way, balls flying out — I mean, it was chaos out there. But our guys are seasoned."
That experience, Atkinson argued, runs through James Harden in particular. Harden's first two games of this series did not go well. The last few have looked very different, and Atkinson believes he knows why.
"We're getting the ball out of his hands a little bit," Atkinson said. "Putting him down-court a little — you don't have to bring it up every single time against [Ausar] Thompson. Just trying to get him off the ball a little more. You see Evan handling more with those inverted pick-and-rolls. I think that's helped him. But he never wavered. He has a bad game, good game — you can't even tell. So I think his mentality, he's seen so much, been through so many of these series. He's a heck of a leader."
Asked about the broader narrative that this Cavaliers group has historically lacked some kind of nasty edge, Atkinson lit up at the mention of Strus, who was a plus presence all night and made the open-floor steal that effectively iced the game.
"Oh yeah, he provides it every day," Atkinson said of Strus. "He's got a nasty character and I love it. Like, you need that. Dennis [Schröder] is a little like that too. But I think it rubs off. James is — listen, James is a tough dude too. I know that's not his reputation because he's such a skilled player, but he's tough as nails. So it's kind of those three guys. And that gives Evan confidence and J [Jarrett Allen] confidence. They push them, they'll talk to them, tell them the truth. Our leadership helps. And then Don's just steady. Positive Don."
The most decisive single sequence came inside the final three minutes of regulation, when Cleveland ripped off nine unanswered to drag the game to overtime.
"Number four, Evan Mobley. Huge three, knocks the two free throws down, gets the dunk," Atkinson said, ticking the plays off in order. "And then that Strus kid wasn't bad, you know. He made some big plays. We got fortunate a little bit. But that's how it goes. The game was just — it got chaotic there at the end. Our guys made plays."
Mitchell's own night was a case study in the kind of mental resilience Atkinson kept circling back to. The Cavaliers' All-Star guard had a torturous shooting night for much of the game before pouring in seven points in overtime, including a shot-fake step-to-the-side three from the right corner that Atkinson singled out.
"It wasn't going great for him, and that's mental resilience," Atkinson said. "I thought the shot fake, step to the side, three in the right corner — he shot it with confidence. But his skill level is so high — he doesn't shy. Because he knows he's so skilled, shot's so good in any chaotic moments."
The wider strategic note was Atkinson's preference for playing the Pistons in transition rather than against their set defence.
"That team, when they get their defence set, is tough to go against. I wanted to go against it in flow, something without them getting set."
For Atkinson, the value of Game 5 is not just the 3-2 series lead. It is the data point that the Cavaliers can win the type of game this franchise has historically lost — a hostile road environment, foul trouble swinging both ways, their star scuffling for three and a half quarters, and the moment to be decided by nerve and depth.
"This is a must-win game for us if we want to move forward," he said of Game 6 back in Cleveland. "Listen, big reason we got [Harden] — that's what we expected. He adds a maturity."
Cleveland now has two chances to close the series. After what they pulled off in Detroit, they will need only one.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/kenny-atkinson-cavs-game-5-overtime-detroit-mobley-strus-harden-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
