Jalen Brunson scored 31 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 29 points and 13 rebounds as the New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-97 on Saturday night at Rocket Arena, in the first meeting between the teams since New York swept last season’s Eastern Conference finals, the Associated Press reported.
The Cavaliers (5-5) were playing the second game of a back-to-back home set, one night after routing the Philadelphia 76ers 119-95 in an NBA Cup game. The defending champion Knicks (5-4) won their third straight and moved above .500 for the first time this season, according to the Associated Press.
The game turned in the second quarter. With Cleveland up 39-37, Brunson hit a 3-pointer and then reeled off 18 straight New York points over a span of 4:24 to put the Knicks ahead 52-45, the Associated Press reported. New York led 63-53 at halftime.
Towns set the tone early, scoring 14 points in the first quarter despite being whistled for a foul 22 seconds into the game, the New York Post reported. He finished 29 points with 13 rebounds and two steals. Brunson, the reigning Finals MVP, shot 12-for-25, including 3-for-7 on 3-pointers, and added nine assists and six rebounds, according to the New York Post.
New York’s cushion grew in the third quarter, when Landry Shamet hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Knicks an 88-69 lead, their largest of the night, Reuters reported. Cleveland never fully recovered from that stretch.
Donovan Mitchell did nearly all of Cleveland’s late scoring. Mitchell finished with a season-high 37 points, 21 of them in the fourth quarter, and brought the Cavaliers within eight points with under two minutes remaining, the Associated Press reported. No other Cavalier scored more than 12 points, and James Harden was held to seven points on 2-of-9 shooting, according to NBC Sports’ player news.
The possession battle hurt Cleveland as much as the shooting. New York won the rebounding battle 49-40 and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds that produced a 26-8 advantage in second-chance points, Hoops Wire reported.
“Going into the season, one of my concerns was, ‘Are we gonna attack this season the way we should?’ and obviously we didn’t,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said in comments reported by the New York Post, reflecting on his team’s 0-3 start. “If you have championship pedigree — which that group does have — it’s going to wake you up.”
Towns said in comments reported by the New York Post: “We found a little bit of that magic and that pace of that team that was so magical in last year’s run. Just fortunate that we were able to do something special tonight.” Brunson added in the same reporting: “Obviously, bounced back from our start, but just going to try to do our best to not be complacent. Continue to get better every single day.”
The loss was a reality check for a Cleveland team that had looked sharp 24 hours earlier against Philadelphia. Saturday’s game followed the pattern of last spring’s conference finals, which New York swept, including a 37-point win in Game 4 on Cleveland’s home floor, the Associated Press noted.
Ohio basketball fans can also catch up on Ohio State’s 89-65 win over Youngstown State, led by John Mobley’s 25 points.
Mitchell’s line was efficient in defeat: 37 points on 13-of-22 shooting, including five 3-pointers, with four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block, according to NBC Sports’ player news. It was a season high, built almost entirely on a fourth quarter in which he outscored the rest of his team’s starters combined.
The schedule did Cleveland no favors. The Cavaliers had played Philadelphia on Friday night, while the Knicks had been off since Wednesday, a rest gap noted in Hoops Wire’s postgame coverage. Evan Mobley, Cleveland’s other frontcourt centerpiece, finished with 12 points — he and Harden combined for just 19, according to Hoops Wire.
The start of New York’s season frames the win. The Knicks became the first defending champion in 15 years to drop its first three games, the New York Post reported, before steadying; Saturday’s win was their third in a row. For Cleveland, the back-to-back split — a 24-point NBA Cup win over Philadelphia, then a 12-point loss to New York — leaves the Cavaliers at .500 ten games into the season.
What happens next: the Cavaliers travel to Charlotte to face the Hornets on Monday, while the Knicks return home to host the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press schedule. Cleveland plays four games next week, NBC Sports noted.
Photo: Rocket Arena in Cleveland, home of the Cavaliers. Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY