- That one hurt. Bad. It’s a regular season game, and there’s still double-digit games left, but that’s one of those games that just doesn’t sit right.
- Jalen Brunson went out on the first play of the game with a non-contact injury. That put the Knicks down Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, and OG Anunoboy. That’s four of the five regular Knicks starters.
- Now, the Cavs were without Caris LeVert and Donovan Mitchell, but they were at home and still had Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Darius Garland. That should be enough to win. But it wasn’t.
- The Cavs were outcoached and outplayed. Not for the entire game but most of the game, and especially when it mattered most. That’s hard to stomach, especially looking forward to the playoffs.
- The night was a game of runs. Every quarter each team went on their own run. Early in the first, the Cavs went on a 10-2 run to go up five, and it seemed like the Cavs were going to have a good showing on national television for once. Then, the Knicks went on a 13-0 run immediately after a timeout to stop the Cavs run.
- Cavs ran a little play, that I wish they ran again at a later point, where Allen provided a handoff screen to get Mobley downhill towards the rim and put defending bigs in an atypical position. It resulted in an easy Mobley bucket at the rim.
- If you’re going to play a two big lineup, you must get some offensive production and you must win those minutes. The Cavs were a -2 in 15 minutes and had a 96.3 offensive rating for the night.
- Seeing Isaac Okoro lead the way offensively in the first quarter was fun to see. He nailed two three-pointers and was looking like a credible offensive threat. He also had an assist. However, this was part of the Knicks gameplan. More on this later.
- Outside of Okoro’s two made three-pointers, the Cavs did not make a three-pointer in the first quarter and were 0-7.
- The Knicks were breaking down the Cavs defense early and it was causing the Cavs issues. They were getting into the paint without much resistance, causing the Cavs to make some defensive rotations and decisions that the Knicks were taking advantage of. 6-11 from three will hurt you.
- The first quarter felt like too much of previous matches where the Cavs were outdone on the little things. Down 9 and scoring 19 points is hard to defend.
- But it did lead to the Cavs best quarter of the night. They scored 34 points and were 7-13 on three-pointers.
- Part of that was Sam Merrill getting hot. At a time when the Cavs needed someone to step up offensively after a sleepy start, he responded with four three-pointers in the quarter. He hit two in two minutes, and then two in one minute. He doesn’t take long to warm up.
- The other part was the defensive effort shown by Dean Wade, Okoro and Merrill fighting through screens. Without any shot creators, the Knicks were going through a lot of screen action which was giving the Cavs issues. Those three were able to get through screens, and not allow the Knicks to get advantages off the screens.
- The Knicks were 0-4 from three in the second quarter and scored just 10 points the final seven minutes of the quarter.
- The start of the second quarter is an example of sticking to the script and not reading what’s going in front of you. JB Bickerstaff had his typical rotation in with Georges Niang alongside Mobley. However, this meant Niang was on Bojan Bogdanovic which meant chasing him off screens, and around the perimeter. Bogdanovic had eight points before JBB was able to sub out Niang halfway through the second.
- Understanding you want to get Niang his minutes, but that’s putting your team and the player in a bad position. JBB should have kept Wade in who is much more comfortable running with Bogdanovic, and JBB shouldn’t have put Niang in a position where he’s not best suited to succeed.
- That second quarter was BG and AG: Before Georges and After Georges. Before with Georges, they were -2 in 6 minutes. After Georges, they were +13.
- Following Wade subbing in for Niang, the Cavs immediately went on 8-0 run.
- The Cavs had 16 assists on their first 16 made field goals. For the game, they had 31 assists on 39 made field goals.
- Mobley showed some offensive aggression in the second quarter, and I wish he showed it more consistently. He was going at Jericho Sims, and getting into his chest, initiating contact to create space for a shot. We need this more.
- Speaking more to Okoro’s offensive ascension, he had a little pocket pass to Allen off drive off a closeout that shows his offensive playmaking skills.
- And speaking of runs, the third quarter had it again. The Knicks came out on a 9-0 run to start the half and knock out any momentum the Cavs had ending the half.
- The Cavs would go on a 7-0 run themselves and the Knicks would follow with a 9-0 run.
- The difference in the third quarter was the three-point shooting. Just like it was all night. The Cavs were 3-14 while the Knicks were 5-10. The team that won the three-point shooting each quarter, won each quarter.
- The Knicks were daring Okoro to shoot in the quarter and he came back down to earth. He was 0-5 in the quarter.
- Garland was able to create a couple of three point makes early to get the Cavs going offensively. He hit one a few minutes later and got the Cavs to within three points with just under five minutes left.
- Problem with the fourth quarter was a couple things: One, for every play the Cavs made the Knicks came right back to make an equalizer. Credit goes to the Knicks for stepping up, but the Cavs were unable to stack a run together to push them over the top. Two, the crunch time offense.
- To part one, Josh Hart somehow hit a side-step three-pointer over Mobley’s outstretched hand from the dead corner to put the Knicks up six with 96 seconds left. Miles McBride hit the dagger with 33 seconds left after playing 47 minutes on the night.
- To part two, the Cavs scored two points the final four minutes and forty seconds of the game. Almost five minutes in a game where they needed to score. The Knicks were without their four best players and two of their guys playing 45+ minutes with another nearly 40 minutes.
- Here’s how those Cavs offensive possessions looked: Garland turnover, Strus blocked layup, Allen blocked layup, Garland turnover, Merrill missed three, Garland missed layup.
- Garland looked to be getting his shot back – he hit a few mid-range jumpers, he had several nifty self-created, contested threes, was 7-14 overall and 5-8 from long range. He’s also kept the turnovers down -- 10 the last four games.
- However, he really struggled down the stretch when they needed him most and really has struggled to get anything going around the rim. He was 2-6 on 2P’s and is 4-23 on 2Ps the last three games (h/t @Wham with the Right Hand ). With Mitchell out, the spotlight is only further on Garland and these stretches hurt.
- Josh Hart had 19 rebounds on the night which is as many as the entire Cavaliers team did outside Allen and Mobley. A lot of the focus goes on those two, but the team rebounding is more of an issue than the bigs rebounding.
- To that point further: Allen and Mobley combined for 20 rebounds which was one more than the Knicks three bigs. A lot of the talk will be on rebounding, but they did their job against their matchup.
- Wade, Stus and Niang combined for six points, six rebounds, six assists, four turnovers 2-14 3P and was a -21 in nearly 65 minutes. The Cavs just needed one of them to step up and it hurt most that none of them did.
- For all that Mobley did well, they really needed him to step up late. Despite eight second half rebounds, he only had six second half points and only two fourth quarter points. Allen wasn’t much better with five second half points and three fourth quarter points. However, Mobley is really the guy that steps up the offensive ladder with Mitchell, and LeVert, out, and needed that extra output late except it never came.
- Only four fast break points on the night. For a team that has thrived in transition all year, and really struggled in the half court, this feels like a missed opportunity for some easy baskets.
- Only eight free throw attempts with how physical the game was seems… off. There were missed calls but the refs aren’t going to fault the aggressor, and the Cavs were not the aggressor.
- The Cavs only led for 3:58 the entire game. At home. With all of the Knicks injuries. Sigh.
- The best lineup for the night was Allen-Wade-Okoro-Merrill-Garland. They were a +5 in 9:21 and had a 138.9 ORTG.
- The worst lineup for the night was Allen-Wade-Okoro-Strus-Garland. They were -8 in 5:32 and had a 63.6 ORTG.
- Where do the Cavs go from here? Get healthy and show some mental fortitude. The schedule is unforgiving and will require the Cavs to get over this quickly.
- With this loss, the Cavs fall to the third seed and are 3.5 games up on the Knicks who own the fourth seed.
- Up next: They welcome the red hot Celtics to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse for a 7:30PM(ET) TNT game.
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