There is only one way the Cavaliers can shed the label of being too soft to win an NBA championship: Win a bruising rebounding battle in a high-stakes game when the entire country is watching. The Cavaliers and Knicks met on Christmas Day in Madison Square Garden in what could easily be a preview of an Eastern Conference playoff series. The Cavs led, 103-86, with 10:26 to play. They were outscored, 40-21 from that juncture and lost, 126-124. Evan Mobley, projected to miss two to four weeks with a calf injury, instead played 25 minutes off the bench after missing only five games. He scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds. The game was Sam Merrill’s third after missing 14 games with a wrist injury. He scored 11 points in 29 minutes. Kenny Atkinson, in his postgame news conference, put a positive spin on the result, perhaps taking a page from the coach’s manual that says it does no good to kick a team when it’s down. The Cavs beat the Hornets and Pelicans before facing the Knicks to win back-to-back games for the first time since they beat the Pacers and Clippers before Thanksgiving. The Hornets (11-20) and Pelicans (8-24) will likely be eliminated from playoff contention by the All-Star break. The Knicks (21-9) are second in the East, 2 1/2 games behind the 24-7 Pistons. The Cavs (17-15) are seventh in the East. “I couldn’t be more encouraged; we did a lot of good things,” Atkinson told reporters. “We got a lot of good contributions. With Sam back, and Evan coming, D.G. (Darius Garland, who had offseason toe surgery) — we’re starting to get our mojo back.” The game looked like a replay of the 2023 playoffs, when Cavs center Jarrett Allen totaled 13 rebounds in the final three games of a first-round series with the Knicks. Knicks center Mitchell Robinson totaled 36 rebounds — 23 on the offensive glass — in the same three games. The Cavs lost all three. Robinson pushed Allen around like a dust bunny on the end of a broom in the Christmas showdown. Mitchell played just 4:46 of the fourth quarter and still grabbed eight rebounds. Four were offensive rebounds. Allen played 6:47 of the fourth quarter and had zero defensive rebounds. “You can’t give this team extra shots,” Atkinson said. “I think it starts with mentality. I know everybody is going to say, ‘Physicality, physicality.’ I think it’s your mental focus. There’s a difference. “You have your scrum rebounds and you have the ones where guys come in from the corners. Those are the mindless ones. It isn’t physicality, to me. Are you focused? I have to do a better job. We have to emphasize it more.” Atkinson and Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman are sensitive about the Cavs being labeled soft — especially when it comes to Allen, That is no surprise. One is responsible for putting the team together, and the other is responsible for coaching it. “He played 82 straight games last year,” Altman said before the start of training camp. “You have to have some resilience to do that. He played every single playoff game last year, Jarrett is a great player. He’s been to the All-Star Game. He’s been a mainstay. He’s the reason we have the defense we have. And so to just point to him, I think, is unfair.” Allen, 6-foot-9, 243 pounds, missed nine games this season with a broken finger. He has a 13.9 rebound percentage. That is 57th in the NBA and 37th among centers. Robinson, 7-foot, 240 pounds, is second in the league with a 22.0 rebounding percentage, Kel’el Ware of the Miami Heat leads the NBA with a 22.3 rebound percentage. The statistic means Allen has grabbed only 13.9 percent of the rebounds he could have gathered while on the floor. Atkinson is correct. Physical toughness and mental toughness are different. Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers in football, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in basketball. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in golf, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Jose Ramirez in baseball plus Gordie Howe and Alexander Ovechkin in hockey, to name a few, would never have had the success they enjoyed without being mentally tough. Ramirez and James are still going strong. There are no magic words, no magic pill, to make Allen tougher — mentally or physically. I didn’t know that … until I read my Snapple bottle cap. Scientists estimate there are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy (where Earth resides) and three trillion trees on our planet. … A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down. … A person on average blinks four million times a year. … Hawaiian pizza, featuring pineapple, bacon, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce plus ham or bacon, was originated in Ontario, Canada, in 1962. … The Statue of Liberty wears a size 879 sandal. … Asparagus can grow seven inches in one day. ...read more read less