Knicks vs. Cavaliers: Five questions for Game 2 of Eastern Conference Finals
NEW YORK– The big question before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals: how to come back from that?
In Game 1, the Cleveland Cavaliers led by 22 points with less than eight minutes left in the fourth quarter before falling apart. Offensively, they began “playing with the clock,” as Cavs big man Evan Mobley put it, slowing down instead of playing with the pace and purpose that had built the lead. Defensively, Cleveland gave up soft switches possession after possession, giving the New York Knicks their favorite matchup: James Harden vs. Jalen Brunson. A bloodbath ensues.
The Knicks finished the game on a 44-11 run, earning a 115-104 overtime victory, the second-largest fourth-quarter comeback in a playoff game in the play-by-play era. Donovan Mitchell said his message to his teammates was simple: “We blew it. All right, let’s respond for Game 2.”
When the media entered the visitors’ locker room at Madison Square Garden, it was as quiet as one would expect. Maybe even quieter. Dean Wade, however, said the Cavs “aren’t too down,” and Mitchell said they can’t let the loss “kill our momentum,” comparing it to their Game 6 loss in the first round in Toronto, in which RJ Barrett’s critical time 3 bounced off the backboard before going through the net and forcing a deciding game.
Maybe Cleveland can bounce back on Thursday, like it did in Game 7 of the first and second rounds. Maybe it’s not possible, and it will change the way the Knicks’ last two playoff opponents have done it. Beyond it being a factor, there’s not much to say about the potential psychological impact of the collapse/return. So let’s talk basketball stuff.
Five questions about the rest of the Eastern Conference finals:
1. Is the Knicks’ fourth-quarter offense sustainable?
Just before the first game, Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said New York was “a different team” than in the regular season because it was running much of its offense through Karl-Anthony Towns. Atkinson said they need to put pressure on Towns and their off-ball defense needs to be on point as well. This would be, he said, one of the keys to the series.
Cleveland stopped all that on Tuesday and still lost. The funny thing about the Knicks comeback is that it didn’t require any of those nice things. They won thanks to match chasing and hero ball. Brunson got used to Harden one-on-one and converted a mix of clean looks and contested skinny shots. Ultimately, Cleveland decided to put two on the ball, but its execution in those situations was terrible.
The Cavs obviously need to better manage the hunt for Harden. When New York surrounds Brunson with shooters, as it did late in Game 1, changes can’t be automatic. If and when they bomb it, they must be kept informed. I still can’t believe they faced 36-year-old Harden for the game entire fourth quarter and overtime and left him on an island against Brunson as many times as they did. At the same time, though, the Knicks have to ask themselves a tough question: Can they win like this again?
For more than three quarters, it looked like Cleveland’s change was going to be one of the main reasons it won “I think we know we’re at our best when we keep people in front of us, and changing positions is the easiest way to avoid being behind on screens,” Wade said. By staying out of rotation, the Cavs were able to prevent corner 3s, protect the defensive glass and slow down an offense that had been humming for weeks… until Brunson took over.
New York is certainly grateful that the “let Brunson cook” strategy saved the day. However, in the future, other sources of offense may need to be found.
2. Can the Cavs put New York back in the blender?
Until the collapse, Cleveland’s offense seemed to have a leg up on the Knicks’. Mitchell especially punished the Knicks for blitzing with his pick-and-rolls, and the bigs made quick decisions in the pocket. There were a few sloppy passes, but generally speaking, when the Cavs got into the paint, they knew they would be able to find clean looks from their shooters, who did a good job moving around the perimeter. They targeted Brunson a lot, and it almost always resulted in a high-quality shot.
“We threw the ball everywhere,” Atkinson said.
Then it all disappeared. Ball movement was replaced with zero or one pass possessions. Was it because of fatigue? Complacency? Spirit and fight renewed from New York? That was probably all part of it, but if the offense had just gone from good to bad instead of good to atrocious, Cleveland would have won.
“It’s night and day,” Harden said. “When our pace is fast, we move, we understand what we are doing, our quality of shots is much better. And we manage to push back our defense.”
Knicks coach Mike Brown said that, defensively, they have to make sure their energy, effort and focus are there “no matter what coverage we’re in.” He said they didn’t look like each other at first and were “very slow” when putting two on the ball and having to rotate. New York had performed at an extremely high level for most of the playoffs, so it was alarming to see how easily Cleveland put the Knicks in the mixer for most of Game 1.
3. Can KAT start?
If New York hadn’t pulled off a miracle, Towns would be under a bit of pressure right now. The Knicks can live with occasional bad shooting nights — he was 1 of 5 from deep in the opener — but the stupid fouls and seven turnovers are another story. Towns couldn’t consistently take advantage of smaller defenders, struggled to maintain ball control on drives and missed some layups. He also really needs to stop grabbing his opponents’ arms right in front of the referees.
Ideally, New York will benefit more from Towns as an offensive hub as the series goes on. If that’s not viable against Cleveland, then we at least need to unlock him as a scorer. If the Cavs want to put him on smaller defenders — and even start possessions that way — then Towns needs to use his size in the post or on the glass.
4. What will the Knicks do with Hart (and Shamet)?
Landry Shamet was a game changer for New York on Tuesday. By playing him in Hart’s place with the other Knicks starters in the fourth quarter and overtime, Brown took away Jarrett Allen’s hiding spot on defense. And on the other side, Shamet harassed Mitchell as much as he could, with and without the ball, which has a lot to do with Cleveland’s struggles getting into its offense.
There’s an argument that, given how the first game ended, Shamet should take Hart’s place in the starting lineup. However, Hart has been a starter since late November and the Knicks are used to teams putting their centers on him. Hart shot just 12 of 45 (26.7%) from 3 in the postseason, but shot 41.3% during the regular season.
“If Josh is open and his feet are set, he has to let it fly,” Brown said. “He’s made shots. We feel like he’s going to make shots. And if he doesn’t want to shoot, he can go to his middle or he can go (dribble-pass) with someone.”
No one will be shocked if Hart makes a bunch of 3s, grabs a bunch of offensive rebounds and terrorizes Cleveland in transition on Thursday. However, he was -23 in 31 minutes in Game 1 and, if New York’s spacing is an issue again, he could see fewer minutes in Game 2.
5. Will Mobley’s reverse pick-and-roll return?
Over the course of the Pistons series, Mobley’s usage changed out of necessity. Atkinson told reporters after Game 7 that Cleveland asked him to handle the ball “more than ever” because he was trying to avoid Ausar Thompson, who was an absolute demon on defense.
In the final games of the second round, the Cavs got some good things going with Mobley’s reverse pick-and-roll. He’s a smart passer and dangerous driver, and opposing players aren’t used to navigating perimeter screens. However, they didn’t do much of this at MSG, and I wonder if they might return to it, if only to lighten Mitchell’s load. (Although Mitchell remained silent toward the end of the game, Game 1 was only the third time in the playoffs — and the first time since Game 7 against the Raptors — that he spent more time with the ball in his hands than Harden.) The stagnation down the stretch suggests Cleveland could diversify its offense.
