Josh Hart had never scored 26 points in a playoff game before Thursday. Jalen Brunson had never handed out 14 assists in a single postseason outing. The Knicks’ starting five had not combined for 96 points in a game this series.
They did all three in Game 2. The result was 109-93. New York lead the Eastern Conference Final 2-0.
This is starting to look very comfortable for the Knicks.
Game 2 at Madison Square Garden had a different texture to the opener. Game 1 required a 4th-quarter comeback and eventually an overtime period before the Knicks took it 115-104. Game 2 had an 18-0 scoring run in the third quarter that effectively killed the competitive tension before the final period had begun. Cleveland managed only 44 points in the second half.
The story of the night was Hart. He is not the first name you guard when preparing for New York’s offence, and that is precisely the problem Cleveland face. With Brunson demanding defensive attention and operating as both the primary scorer and the primary creator, Hart was left with space. He took it, going 5-for-11 from behind the arc on his way to 26 points. Donovan Mitchell scored 26 for Cleveland, which shows the Cavaliers can generate offence. The problem is that when Hart is shooting like this alongside a Brunson performance at that level of creation, the Cavaliers have no clean answer.
Twelve Knicks three-pointers tells you how freely the ball was moving. The 18-0 third-quarter run tells you when Cleveland’s resistance ended.
Game 3 shifts to Cleveland on Friday, May 23, at 8pm ET. The Cavaliers have home court and the urgency that comes with trailing 0-2 in a series. Losing the first two games at an opponent’s arena is difficult enough; they now need to protect their own building to have any realistic path to the Finals.
For the Knicks, the formula is straightforward and it is working. Five starters combining for 96 points, a point guard creating at an elite level, and a role player taking his moments when they arrive. The question now is whether this level holds on the road in Cleveland.
TradeOnSports view:
The 0-2 hole is not impossible to escape. Cleveland have Mitchell, who can take over a game individually, and home court will change the atmosphere. But the structural advantage New York have built around Brunson’s two-way involvement is a real problem for a Cavaliers team that already showed its defensive limitations in both of the first two games. The trajectory is firmly with New York.
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