Barring cosmic intervention, the Knicks are headed to the NBA Finals. The only thing to learn in this series is whether New York will let Cleveland play. The 121-108 scoreline for Game 3 quite misrepresents the difference between the East’s last remaining contenders. The Cavs look physically exhausted and mentally fulfilled. The Knicks, meanwhile, haven’t lost in a month and on Saturday night became the 10th team in NBA history to win at least 10 straight games in the same postseason. Personally, I prefer a quick clean kill over a polite delay. It’s not just to avoid any more sad sack lower seeds. The Western Conference will send its rising giants to the Finals no matter what, so it would be great if the East’s representatives were maximally conditioned, prepared, and in every other way ready for the clash.
The Cavs, a poor, helpless bunch, deserve exactly the kind of mercy traditionally given to them on the other side of the shed. They are nowhere near the Knicks. New York targeted James Harden late in Game 1 and exploited a weakness in the defense. Cleveland’s answer in Game 2 was to distort their own defense with traps and double teams, leading to a career night for Josh Hart and an even more convincing Knicks victory. Even if Cleveland was dialing in its counters heading into Saturday, it was hard to see the contours of it. The Knicks found a great offensive rhythm from the start, scoring 37 points in the first quarter on an astonishing 71 percent shooting. New York opened the game with a lightning-fast 9-1 run, and from that point until the final 150 seconds or so of the fourth quarter, it felt like Cleveland’s entire basketball project was reduced to just a struggle to catch their breath.
Cleveland’s guards can’t defend at all. There was a moment in the second quarter when the Cavs made a bold push to even the score on the scoreboard. So Brunson picked up a loose ball deep in the backcourt and ripped his butt open, leaving Cleveland’s big team behind. He also outperformed teammates Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges in establishing 3-on-3s in transition. OG Anunoby expanded to the right side and pulled away from Cleveland’s Dean Wade. Hart jogged along the left sideline, distracting Max Strus. Harden, with his weak lead foot, became Cleveland’s last defender. You can see Brunson and Harden realizing this at about the same moment. Harden began backpedaling what would be considered serious for an out-of-shape blogger. Branson centered his reticle on Harden’s chest and applied the afterburner. In a very technical sense, Brunson’s layup was “contested,” but he’s almost certainly been plagued by aftershave clouds all his life. This was the first blow of an eventual 10-1 run, dialed up as if on demand, as if to show the slightest sign of a pulse for the home team.
It’s not just Harden, but I’m open to the argument that the struggles of the rest of Cleveland’s defense stem from his overall desperation as a perimeter stopper. From about three minutes into the game Saturday night, Mitchell looked dazed and disappointed. Their personnel doesn’t get any more robust from there. Sam Merrill and Dennis Schroeder have fawn-like bodies, and you can’t make up for it with determination. Strauss showed some grit, but mostly in the form of giving out bad fouls and flapping his arms in disgust. Either way, Cleveland will have a hard time with Brunson, but Cleveland may not have the legs to match New York’s tempo and movement right now. Their only promising positional defense matchup was at center, and their chances on paper were all too easily negated by New York, who used Towns as an elbow facilitator and floor spacer and had all of their smaller players zoom around him in furious trajectories.
Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson was asked about this after the loss and initially declined the opportunity to describe his players as “gassed,” but the facts are true. “I thought their physicality and energy level was much higher than ours. Call it what it is,” he said from the stage Saturday night, looking exhausted and dejected, his voice like the most poorly maintained lawnmower in history. Atkinson has been feeling good about the opportunities created by Cleveland’s offense, but his shots aren’t falling and the energy expended by sprinting in transition defense is wearing down his players. “There’s no big mystery. Our players play 50 percent more than they do. If I were an opposing coach, I’d say, ‘Run them, wear them out, be super physical.'” That’s a good strategy. ”
The bigger part of this, and certainly the part worth remembering, is that the Knicks always use heaters. They have now won their last 10 games, and Saturday night’s 13-point victory was New York’s third-narrowest margin of victory in that stretch. Since April 25th, they have outscored their opponents by a whopping 225 points. It feels weird to say this about a Knicks playoff team, but their offense is outrageous. They are shooting 52 percent from the floor and 40 percent from beyond the arc as a team. throughout the playoffs. Their victory in Game 3 was comprehensive. Rather, the Cavaliers could be accused of inflating stats because they waived the white flag once the competitive portion of the game was over and refused to pull their starters past the point.
Late in the fourth, with the Knicks trailing by 12 points, Brunson beat Strus cleanly in the paint, and some of the defeated Cavs stood completely still and watched their season flash by. Too late, Evan Mobley came in for the contest and gave him the great sight of Brunson’s finger-roll layup falling home. Cleveland countered with a nice high-low dish from Mobley to Jarrett Allen, followed by a rare stop where Anunoby popped up in the paint. Is it time for a comeback? No, Mikal Bridges hit a floater during a flurry of Cleveland 3-pointers, and Brunson stumbled into an unopposed layup with at least three bewildered Cavaliers guarding him. Atkinson called for a timeout and Mike Breen pointedly pointed out that the home team had forfeited. The stinking Richard Jefferson claimed to have found out about the Cavs’ forfeiture 30 minutes ago, but it was now an undeniable fact anyway. I think this was the millionth time the Knicks have outplayed their opponent in the last four weeks. everything is working.
“You know, I think they were 8-for-9 from mid-range in the first half,” Atkinson said, emphasizing that even if the Cavs were able to put together a perfect defensive sequence, the Knicks would still get buckets. (Actually, the NBA shot chart says they were just 7-for-8.) The East may not have the depth of hard hitters that the West has, but these are solid basketball teams, and the Knicks are looking to destroy them. Depending on your interest in the competitive finals and the pain you feel at the thought of another powerful New York sports team, it’s possible to believe it’s all real, but it’s an exciting proposition. The Knicks are rolling on some kind of karmic level. Atkinson can’t deny that. “It’s about, well, juice. They had a lot of juice.”
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