Knicks start fast, roll past Donovan Mitchell and shorthanded Cavaliers
Knicks guard RJ Barrett, right, shoots as Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell watches during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, in Cleveland. Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki
CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers approached this game, almost right to the opening tip, with the sort of gamesmanship and intrigue that would normally not arrive until the postseason with a best-of-seven series and the end of someone’s season on the line.
But as the Knicks and Cavs readied for this meeting there was talk of debts and payback for the Knicks knocking Cleveland out of the playoffs last season. There was bulletin board material with former Knicks general manager Scott Perry explaining on.a podcast why the team didn’t complete a trade for Donovan Mitchell last summer — saying he wasn’t the sort of singular force that could carry a team. And finally, there was the status of Mitchell, who was listed as questionable all the way until the starting lineup was announced shortly before game time.
The mystery over Mitchell’s status was something the Knicks never seemed to believe and the mystery of this first meeting between the two teams lost its intrigue quickly, too, as the Knicks jumped out early and dominated, leading by as many as 23 and coasting to a 109-91 win at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
While the Knicks expected to get the best the Cavs had, there was some knowledge that this isn’t the true test and that may not come until the postseason. And Cleveland entered this game shorthanded. Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, both starters and important pieces of the Cavs roster, were ruled out with injuries Tuesday, and Caris LeVert, a key bench piece, was a late scratch.
The challenge seemed more like being able to name everyone that the Cavs sent into the game. Mitchell had a game-high 26 points, but just six after halftime as the game got out of reach and he went to the bench. His play wasn’t nearly enough to offset the Knicks numbers with five players in double-figures led by Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson with 19 each.
Still, it was a tight game with the Knicks up four early in the third quarter. Just 89 seconds into the half Thibodeau called for a timeout — which various players described in different ways, most of it not fit for print.
“A mixture of a couple of those things probably,” Brunson said. “Can’t say exactly what he said but yeah.”
The Knicks have had their rivals through their history and the Cavs have not ranked high on that list. But now, that may have changed, from their shared history with Mitchell, the one-sided upset last season and even the addition by Cleveland of Max Strus, who helped eliminate the Knicks last season a round later while he was an unsung standout for the Miami Heat.
It takes something to grow that rivalry and a back-to-back, home-and-home set this early in the season provides a reminder for the Cavs of what went wrong last season. But it wasn’t enough to rekindle much of the fire.
“You always have that game circled,” Mitchell said. “But at the end of the day, we lost. Move on. It;’s a new year. We’re competitors for sure. When you lose to a team like that you want to go out there and get it but we got to go out and get one tomorrow. And if not, we have to move on with this season. As much as we continue to harp on what happened last season. But neither of us won the championship so we have to continue to find a way to win enough games to get to the playoffs, win in the playoffs, and get to a championship. That's the ultimate goal.”
“You always see it,” Josh Hart said of the Cavaliers talk in recent days. “We don’t really care. That’s for them. If they want to have that chip on their shoulder that’s good for them. We don’t really care.”
Hart paused and added, in reference to Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson joking a day earlier that comparing him to Hart is like filet mignon and sirloin, “We’re just sirloin steaks.”
The intrigue over Mitchell’s status certainly seemed like a misdirection play as the game began and he certainly didn’t show any ill effects of the supposed injury, which had kept him out of Saturday’s second game of a back-to-back set after scoring 36 and 42 in the first two games of the season.
Late in the first half he compiled a sequence worthy of a highlight reel — outjumping Hart for an offensive rebound and converting it into a three-point play, then blowing by Mitchell Robinson for an easy layup on the next trip. He then drew two defenders and slipped a pass to Thompson for a wide-open dunk.
By the time the half ended Mitchell was up to a game-high 20 points, euro-stepping around Knicks defenders with ease, jumping over them when necessary and looking like there was no hint that he’d ever had a calf injury. When it was over, Mitchell said he’d be ready to play at the Garden Wednesday night.
“Watch the film and get ready,” he said. “At the end of the day, they did some good things. They made shots. We got to take one on their home floor. Similar to the playoffs.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
