NEW YORK — The Cleveland Cavaliers have a Jalen Brunson problem. As well as a James Harden problem. Plus a shooting problem. And a bench problem.
Problems like those, no matter how much coaches can sugarcoat it, can’t exactly be solved overnight, and Cleveland heads home to the shores of Lake Erie down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference finals, and they are two more dreadful performances from enjoying the early vacation spot south of the border reserved for teams that don’t meet their season’s goals.
Thursday night’s performance at Madison Square Garden, a 109-93 loss, was much more than a Game 1 hangover. With the rabid crowd screaming “Knicks in 4” as the fourth-quarter seconds wound down, New York is just two victories away from its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, when they lost in five games to the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks' most recent championship banner is from 1973, and breaking that five-decade drought is more realistic than ever, barring a total collapse in the next week.
New York has now won nine straight playoff games. When the Boston Celtics won the 2024 title, they won 10 consecutive postseason games.
After blowing a 22-point lead in Game 1 and inexplicably using no timeouts as his team was getting blitzed to the tune of a 44-11 run over the first 12 minutes of regulation and overtime, Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson was criticized for keeping timeouts for no reason, but this time in Game 2, whether he used them or not, there was nothing he could have done that would have stopped New York.
Brunson put together a 38-point masterclass in Game 1, bringing the Knicks back from the brink of an embarrassing performance. His Game 2 performance was much more subtle but no less effective, with 19 points and 14 assists.
From the outset, it was clear that Cleveland’s defensive strategy was to clamp down on Brunson and force him into getting the ball out of his hands early in the shot clock. Instead, the three-time All-Star flipped the script, dishing off to open teammates who rewarded him with their sharpshooting, and the team shot 52 percent for the night.
The beneficiaries of Brunson’s playing calm, controlled floor general instead of deadly clutch assassin were Josh Hart — who led five Knicks starters in double figures, scoring a playoff career-high 26 points and hitting five three-pointers — and Karl-Anthony Towns — with a strong 18-point, 13-rebound performance. Hart was not a factor in Game 1 and was on the bench for the most part as New York made their epic comeback.
"I don't have an ego, that got burned out of my heart a long time ago,” Hart said after the game.
Knicks head coach Mike Brown didn’t argue with that assessment.
“It's just who Josh is. He's a gamer,” Brown said. “He knew what he had to do in terms of the adjustments he needed to make in order to be effective, not just for him but for the team."
Cleveland couldn’t take advantage of several opportunities to make the game tilt in their favor. Brunson only scored two points in the first half, but Cleveland was down four going into halftime.
But the Knicks essentially put the game away with an 18-0 run in the third, led by Brunson, who started the quarter with a 3-pointer, a driving turnaround 10-foot jumper, and another layup around a flat-footed Harden.
The Cavaliers got no closer than seven points the rest of the game, and even when the Knicks went the first three and a half minutes of the fourth quarter without scoring and were in the foul bonus with nine minutes left, the shooting woes continued, and when a 3-pointer by OG Anunoby, who had 14 points, found nothing but nylon to break the scoring drought the deflated Cavaliers all but waved the white flag.
The Cavaliers shot 38.5%, including 9-35 from three, and were outscored in the paint by 18 points.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” an astute Atkinson said after the game. “I thought we had a lot of good looks from three. I thought our process was good. At the end of the day, you have to put the ball in the hole.”
At this point, you can pick a reason why the Cavaliers’ problems are amplified since the 7:52 mark in the fourth quarter of Game 1, where they had a 93-71 lead. Harden’s disappearing act is the most notable. He had 12 points in the first half, six in the second, and for the most part seemed uninterested in keeping any Knicks ball handler in front of him. Donovan Mitchell, who scored 26 points in the loss, can only do so much, and Cleveland’s basic four-man bench rotation went 5 for 24 from the field, not making a dent in the scoreboard during their time on the floor.
Evan Mobley got off to a hot start, scoring 14 points in the first half, including 10 in the first quarter. But that was it for his night on the offensive end, as he didn’t attempt a single shot in the second half.
With their season teetering on the brink of elimination, Cleveland needs to put together a complete Game 3 performance on Saturday, or it will be more of the same disappointing results.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cavaliers have problems to solves to avoid playoff disappointment
