'Knicks in 4' a real possibility of Cavaliers can't flip the script
Cleveland's poor play has the Cavaliers two losses from being eliminated by the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals.
NEW YORK — The Cleveland Cavaliers have a Jalen Brunson problem. As well as a James Harden problem. Plus a shooting problem.
And a bench problem. Problems like those, no matter how much coaches can sugarcoat it, can’t exactly be solved overnight, and Cleveland heads home to the shores of Lake Erie down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference finals, and they are two more dreadful performances from enjoying the early vacation spot south of the border reserved for teams that don’t meet their season’s goals. Thursday night’s performance at Madison Square Garden , a 109-93 loss, was much more than a Game 1 hangover.
With the rabid crowd screaming “Knicks in 4” as the fourth-quarter seconds wound down, New York is just two victories away from its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, when they lost in five games to the San Antonio Spurs . The Knicks' most recent championship banner is from 1973, and breaking that five-decade drought is more realistic than ever, barring a total collapse in the next week. New York has now won nine straight playoff games.
When the Boston Celtics won the 2024 title, they won 10 consecutive postseason games. After blowing a 22-point lead in Game 1 and inexplicably using no timeouts as his team was getting blitzed to the tune of a 44-11 run over the first 12 minutes of regulation and overtime, Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson was criticized for keeping timeouts for no reason, but this time in Game 2, whether he used them or not, there was nothing he could have done that would have stopped New York. Brunson put together a 38-point masterclass in Game 1, bringing the Knicks back from the brink of an embarrassing performance.
Continue to the original source for the full article.