Knicks, Cavaliers remain a mystery to each other
Knicks guard Miles McBride passes the ball against Cavaliers forward Cedi Osman during the second half of an NBA game on March 31 in Cleveland. Credit: AP/Ron Schwane
When the regular season came to an end Sunday afternoon, it hit another goal for the Knicks. Earning a playoff spot? Check. Finish off a 47-35 campaign that was better than anyone outside their locker room could have predicted? Check.
And now stop pretending that they haven’t been planning for a first-round playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers for weeks? Check.
The Knicks and Cavaliers have met four times this season, most recently less than two weeks ago. And even though Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has insisted at every mention of the series that the focus was on the task in front of them, they’ve already been planning and plotting. The coaches have been poring over film of every possession, searching for answers of how to hit the next goal: Winning this series.
The Cavaliers have taken a different path, openly talking about the Knicks, discussing their strengths and threats, and eschewing the mystery in which Thibodeau has shrouded the series. “Tomorrow we’ll dig in and then lay out the plan and then just get ready,” he said Sunday after the final game on the schedule. “Go day by day. That’s the way we approach it.”
But there is some mystery after the Knicks won the season series 3-1. The Cavs saw Jalen Brunson score 48 points on March 31, but they didn’t see Julius Randle that night and don’t know if the All-Star will be back or limited after spraining his left ankle.
Earlier in the season, the first time they met, the Knicks still had Evan Fournier, Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish in the rotation. Point guard Darius Garland missed that night for the Cavs.
The second time they met — the game in which the Knicks shifted their rotation and turned their season around — the Cavs were without center Jarrett Allen. In the third meeting, Mitchell Robinson was sidelined. So while they study the film and while they have seen plenty of each other, do they really know what is coming when the series begins Saturday?
“Well, you’re going to be challenged a lot differently in the playoffs,” Thibodeau said. “It’s different because you’re playing the same team over and over. But we know how good they are and we know the things that we have to do in order to give ourselves a good chance of being successful. So understand how important it is to attack. You can attack the right way. And I think if we do that, it’ll be positive.”
After that last meeting, Donovan Mitchell said the Knicks took the game over late. “Don’t think they did anything different,’’’ he said. “That’s just something guys have to get used to. Understanding that . . . you have to finish through contact, you can hit people, can hold. Certain things you can’t teach, and that’s one of them.”
As their season came to an end, the Cavaliers were still talking about those lessons learned.
“The game that Jalen Brunson had put us on high alert,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “And I think that’s a good thing for us. To have that appropriate fear of your opponent. We’ll use it, we’ll watch the film, we’ll figure it out and we’ll be better.”
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.
