"I love how we fought" – Atkinson after Cavs were beaten in Houston

Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson was not too down-hearted after his team were beaten 109-108 at the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.

The Cavs remain top of the Eastern Conference, although the result snaps a two-game winning streak to leave their record at 36-7 – 11 ahead of second-placed Boston Celtics.

They were 11 points down going into the fourth quarter and battled back to reduce the deficit to just one point after scoring 25 in the fourth. While they were beaten, Atkinson said that there were many things to like in their performance.

"I love how we fought, I love our resiliency, I love our team. We were short-handed, guys fought like crazy. I thought our toughness, willingness to battle all that stuff, and sometimes it doesn't go your way," said Kenny Atkinson following the loss.

"We had chances, they had chances. I mean, it's the NBA. So, no regrets. I thought our guys laid it on the line. It's a tough loss, obviously."

Darius Garland, meanwhile, missed two free throws during the end of regulation time that would have ultimately won it for the visitors.

An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.

But instead of picking up on his errors, Atkinson tried to get around Garland and help him feel better following his mistake.

Atkinson said he told Garland: "'You've been carrying us all year.' He put himself in a good position. One of the best free-throw shooters in the league. It happens, but I love that guy. I love his effort."

Team-mate Donovan Mitchell echoed the thoughts of his coach, suggesting he and the rest of the team learned a lot to take into the rest of the season.

"You always want to learn through wins, but sometimes you just got to learn through losses. Our best free-throw shooter on the team missed two today.

"It happens, it's life, it's gonna happen. There's a lot of things that we could've done better to get to that point before those free throws."