CLEVELAND — The Knicks bounced back from a scary moment with a courageous victory.
Despite Jalen Brunson suffering a game-ending knee injury in the first minute, the Knicks cruised to a 107-98 victory Sunday at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse thanks to a triple-double and a standout performance from Josh Hart. He made it out, but not without fear of serious injury.
Brunson collapsed on the court and was initially said to be “not likely to return” due to knee pain, but by the third quarter the word was changed to “not likely to return.”
The team did not provide further details after the final buzzer, and Brunson never appeared on the team’s bench again.
The Cavaliers were playing without Donovan Mitchell, who missed two consecutive games with knee pain.
They also entered the nationally televised contest without the injured Caris LeVert.
That left both teams without star power, and Hart took over.
Not only did he have 19 rebounds, 10 assists, and 13 points in 46 minutes, he also contributed two game-winning plays: contested 3-pointers that gave the Knicks a six-point lead with 1:36 left. . , a steal on the Cavaliers’ ensuing possession.
It was Hart’s third triple-double of the season, and his first since January 30th.
Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff said before tipoff that his priority was to limit Hart.
It didn’t work.
“He’s the heart and soul of the team, so our focus is on keeping him out of the game, not letting him make hustle plays, outperforming us and reinvigorating the Knicks,” Bickerstaff said. Ta. “He does a great job of crashing, and his team feeds off of that, so you have to keep him off the boards. Defensively, when he rebounds and pushes, he gets guys in transition, and his team feeds off of that. The team feeds off of that. When you guard the ball defensively, you get charges, steals, deflections, you bring energy and the team feeds off of that. We want him to be better than us. We’re not going to tolerate that, so we’re going to do our best to eliminate that type of play.”
With the win, the Knicks (36-25) maintain fourth place in the East.
Miles McBride played the final 47-plus minutes in Brunson’s place, scoring 16 points, including a dagger trey with 33 seconds left.
Donte DiVincenzo led all scorers with 28 points in 39 minutes.
It was the first time they played against the Cavaliers since Nov. 1, but things have changed.
Cleveland entered Sunday in second place in the East with a top-notch defense.
The injury-plagued Knicks have struggled of late, but they still bounced back against Cleveland, the same spot they won last year’s playoffs.
The Cavaliers got blown out in that first round, especially against the Knicks, which really hurt them heading into the season.
On Sunday, Bickerstaff admitted he overhauled his offense following the New York State drubbing.
“The job they did against us defensively, the way we were, the way they closed the floor and they were pretty predictable on us, so they did a great job of taking away our strengths. He gave it to me,” Bickerstaff said. “We were really good, but you guys knew where our offense was coming from, so in terms of having to diversify, like making it harder to guard and attacking from different points of attack. It opened my eyes a little bit.”
“So people try to learn from everything, and we took it as a learning lesson.”
