This game reminded me of the blowout loss to the Celtics. It was the same scenario; the Cavs had two home games then their first game on the road they got hammered.
Two weeks ago the Cavs beat the Knicks. Since that game the Cavs added Garland, Sexton, Windler, Allen and Prince. Guess what? They got hammered.
Drummond scored 33 in that win - tonight he scored 4. Him and Allen were missing layups and dunks right and left. I never saw so many missed uncontested shots at the rim. They missed three uncontested dunks! The whole team missed a ton of layups and shot 34.5% from the field. The Knicks are the best defensive team in the NBA but 33 points in the first half? Really?
I don't think Larry Nance's wrist is 100%. He was 1-for-9 and 0-for-5 on 3's. The wrist is definitely not OK. When you have two players in your starting lineup who barely score at all (Nance, Okoro) it puts a lot of pressure on the other three. Sexton's floater wasn't falling and he ended up 6-for-18. Prince and Cedi both went 1-for-7. Drummond was awful, although he worked hard on the glass. The Knicks' swarming and very physical defense bothered the Cavs a lot.
Allen, Osman, and Windler were all between -22 and -28 off the bench. Rivers, Quickley, and Noel were between +17 and +24 off the Knicks' bench. Their bench destroyed our bench and that was the difference in the game. Immanuel Quickley was a +19 and scored 25 points in 25 minutes.
At least Garland is getting his mojo back after the injury with 24 points in 29 minutes.
Give the Knicks' defense a lot of credit, but the Cavs just could not get their shots to fall. Bickerstaff needs to find a way to have them more ready to play on the first game of a road trip. The Knicks had a 28-9 run at the end of the second quarter and a 16-3 run at the end of the third. If I'm not mistaken the Cavs had the same problem last year where they frequently let opponents go on big runs right before halftime or the end of the third quarter. That was when the bench was on the floor tonight and the Allen, Osman, Windler group got their asses handed to them. The Cavs need to learn to close the quarter strong.
Barrett manhandled Windler and guys like Cedi have no chance against Randle. Barrett played 40 minutes and was a +27. The Cavs kept letting him go to his left and take it to the rim. He was too big, strong, and athletic to stop once he got going down the left side of the lane.
The Knicks bench was 18-for-34. They actually have a nice young nucleus between Barrett, Randle, Quickley, Noel, and Toppin. They're not a bad team. Already this season they have wins against Milwaukee, Boston, Utah, and Indiana. When they're on their game they can beat anybody. I'm glad we won't see them the rest of the season.
