The New York Knicks on Thursday used an explosive third quarter to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-93 and take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
Josh Hart led the Knicks with a career playoff high 26 points, drilling five of New York’s 13 three-pointers.
New York star Jalen Brunson, who spearheaded the Knicks’ stunning comeback from a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit in a Game 1 overtime win, scored just two points in the first half, but finished with 19.
Photo: AFP
He also handed out a career playoff high 14 of the Knicks’ 32 assists.
Hart dished out seven assists himself, as well as punishing the Cavaliers when they left him open from long range.
“It felt good,” Hart, who was held out of overtime in the Knicks’ scintillating comeback victory on Tuesday, told broadcaster ESPN. “The thing I’m most happy about is I started zero for three from [three-point range], and I just kept shooting. I’m putting the work in, and it’s kind of built that confidence. So it felt good.”
Knicks coach Mike Brown called it a “whale of a game” from Hart.
“He’s a gamer,” Brown said. “When you have guys that are gamers they do stuff that people don’t think that they can do at any time.”
Mikal Bridges scored 19 points, Karl-Anthony Towns added 18 points and 13 rebounds, and with another win at Madison Square Garden the Knicks took control in the best-of-seven series before it shifts to Cleveland today and Monday.
Donovan Mitchell scored 26 points and James Harden added 18 for the Cavs, who cut an 18-point third-quarter deficit to seven early in the fourth quarter, only for the Knicks to surge away again.
The Cavs head home knowing they face a virtual must-win in Game 3, since no NBA team has rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series, but Hart said that the Knicks’ ninth straight win in the playoffs does not mean they can afford to be complacent as they try to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, and their first title since 1973.
He said that the Cavs dropped the first two games on the road on the way to their seven-game second-round series win over the top-seeded Detroit Pistons.
“We know they’re going to have a sense of urgency, a sense of desperation,” he said. “We can’t just match it, we have to exceed it.”
The Cavs, showing no hangover from Tuesday’s devastating defeat, emerged from a back-and-forth first quarter with a 27-24 lead, but despite a two-point first-half performance from Brunson the Knicks led 53-49 at halftime.
Cleveland pulled level at 53-53 before the Knicks found their groove, reeling off 18 straight points to surge to a 71-53 lead.
The Cavs were scoreless for more than five minutes in the third quarter and trailed 85-70 entering the fourth.
“I thought we had a lot of good looks, a lot of good looks from [three-point range], good looks at the rim,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “[We] took care of the ball, offensive rebounds. It wasn’t a great shooting night. At the end of the day, you’ve got to put the ball in the hole. Tonight we didn’t.”
Mitchell echoed those comments, insisting he was not worried about the Cleveland offense.
“We just didn’t make shots,” he said. “I loved everything about the looks we got. Some days you just miss the open ones.”
The winner of the series is to take on either defending champions the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
The Thunder and Spurs are knotted at 1-1 in the Western Conference Finals.
COMPLAINTS ABOUND: Long delays, unsuitable accommodation and transport issues have overshadowed the lead-up to the Games, which are to open today The Asian Games in Japan on Friday faced more accusations of poor organization with a world champion gymnast “totally exhausted,” the public drafted in to rescue stranded athletes and South Korea lodging a complaint about a Japanese warlord. The continent’s premier sporting spectacle opens in Nagoya and Aichi prefecture today, but the build-up has been soured by several issues. That includes a shortage of rooms for the more than 17,000 athletes and officials — a bigger number than the Olympics. Some teams have also criticized the quality of the accommodation, including beds that are too short. To save money there is no athletes’ village,
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Taiwan has replaced the damaged banner and more cameras have been installed to protect athletes and staff, the sports ministry said The Ministry of Sports yesterday called for mutual respect after a banner at a training facility used by Taiwanese athletes at the Asian Games was defaced to cover up the Chinese characters for “national” and the English word “Taiwan” in Nagoya, Japan. The banner, displayed at Misono Elementary School in Nagoya, was defaced with ink, the Chunichi Shimbun reported on Wednesday. The orange banner, measuring about 5m long by 1.5m wide, hung near the entrance to the former elementary school. In white lettering it read “National Sports Training Center” (國家運動訓練中心) in Mandarin with the English name “Taiwan Sports Training Center.” The Taiwan delegation
Iran yesterday withstood a late fightback to beat China 79-70 and win Asian Games men’s basketball bronze, an achievement that left their players “speechless” after months of war back home. China led 31-29 at half-time in Nagoya, but Iran took charge in the third quarter to lead 55-46 going into the fourth and held on to spark wild celebrations and an emotional place on the podium. “To be honest with you I’m just speechless,” said 202cm power forward Arsalan Kazemi, who in 2013 was the first Iranian to be drafted in the NBA by the Washington Wizards, but never made
HOMERS, HITS: Lin Tzu-wei and Yu Chang have had three-hit games in the MLB, but Lee topped them both and also went past Chang in home runs in a season Detroit Tigers infielder Lee Hao-yu on Friday set Taiwanese MLB records for home runs in a season and hits in a game as he helped his team rally past the Chicago White Sox 11-8. The 23-year-old went four-for-five with three RBIs and two runs scored, tying the game at 8-8 with a two-run homer in the eighth inning. The blast was his 10th homer of the season, while his four hits set a single-game MLB record for a Taiwanese. “When I actually saw it go out, I just blacked out,” Lee said in a post-game interview, recalling his reaction as the tying home
RSS