The New York Knicks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-93, taking a 2-0 lead. The game took place on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Josh Hart led the Knicks with a playoff career-high 26 points. Jalen Brunson contributed 19 points and 14 assists. The Knicks have now won nine straight games.
Mikal Bridges also scored 19 points. Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks.
Hart’s Career Night Fuels Knicks’ Victory
Josh Hart went 5 from 11 from three-point range, also adding seven assists. “Just a whale of a game from Josh,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
Hart had been shooting just 26.7% from three-point range. After a third straight miss from long range early Thursday, he put his jersey in his mouth and bit it, bouncing the ball down hard in frustration three times. “I knew I had to just keep shooting and if I did that I’d be good,” Hart said.
Hart burned a Cavaliers defensive strategy that seemed built around leaving him open from long range. He was benched for the rally in Game 1, playing just three minutes combined in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Knicks’ Dominant Third Quarter
Two nights after rallying from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter, the Knicks ensured they would be in control late. An 18-0 run in the third quarter gave them a 71-53 lead. Fans chanted “Knicks in four! Knicks in four!” in the final minute, long after the starters had gone to the benches.
Brunson scored 38 points in the Game 1 comeback. He only had two points in the first half Thursday before making the first basket of the run that broke open the game. Brunson finished with the highest assist total of his playoff career.
Cavaliers Face 2-0 Deficit
Donovan Mitchell scored 26 points for the Cavaliers. James Harden added 18 for Cleveland.
Mitchell got off to a slow start with just seven points in the first half, triggering more of the questions that followed Game 1 about whether he was injured.
The Cavaliers will have to climb out of a 2-0 deficit for the second straight round. They host Game 3 on Saturday.
- The Knicks are in the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year.
- They haven’t played for the championship since losing to the San Antonio Spurs in 1999.
- The Knicks’ nine-game winning streak is the NBA’s longest postseason winning streak since the Boston Celtics won 10 straight on their way to the 2024 championship.
Free Throw Struggles Hurt Cleveland
Cleveland cut it to single digits with just under eight minutes left. However, they ruined any chance of getting closer with poor free-throw shooting, missing 10 in the game and finishing at 68.8%. The Knicks eventually pushed their lead to 19 points.
“Nothing to hang our head about,” Mitchell said. “They protected home court, and we’ve seen this before so we’re going to go to Game 3.”
“In our mind it’s 0-0. We’ve got to win the next game. It’s the most important game of the year and that’s how we treat it,” Towns said.
The Knicks moved halfway to their first NBA finals appearance since 1999.