The Knicks turned Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals into a comeback built on force, not patience, and now they head into Knicks game tonight talk with Cleveland trying to answer for what happened late Tuesday. New York erased a 22-point deficit with a little less than eight minutes left and beat the Cavaliers in overtime, a result that instantly changed the feel of the series.
Game 2 is Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on, and the matchup has already narrowed to a few hard questions. Jalen Brunson attacked James Harden on almost every Knicks possession in the closing stretch, and Harden was the screener’s defender on 24 ball-screens for Brunson on Tuesday, with 20 of those coming in the final eight minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime. When Harden defended the action, the Knicks scored 1.39 points per chance, and on the 18 chances that led directly to a shot, a turnover or a trip to the line, they scored 29 points. That is the kind of efficiency that can break a game open in minutes.
The Cavaliers also tried to change the look by icing the screen and later putting Sam Merrill on Brunson after New York had stacked eight straight scores. It did not stop the surge. Brunson kept hunting the same spaces, and the Knicks kept finding the next crack in Cleveland’s defense until the lead was gone.
That game has become more than one wild finish. It may end up shaping which team reaches the Finals. The Knicks have now won eight straight games, and they are doing it with confidence that was hard to miss in the way they closed Game 1. The Cavaliers, for their part, have already shown they can recover from a rough road start in a series; they previously lost the first two games away from home before winning that matchup. This time, the margin for error is much thinner because the road has already disappeared beneath them.
There is also a possible rotation wrinkle. New York’s comeback came with Landry Shamet on the floor instead of Josh Hart, a detail that will draw attention if the Knicks lean into a similar look again. NBA.com described Harden’s defense and more playing time for Shamet as two things to watch in Game 2 of the East finals, and that is the right frame. One side is looking for a way to slow Brunson. The other is deciding whether the lineup that helped erase 22 points should stay on the floor longer.
Last year, the Knicks lost the Eastern Conference Finals in six games. This year’s opener gave them a different kind of foothold. If Game 1 was a warning, it was a loud one: Cleveland led by 22 with a little less than eight minutes left and still left the floor beaten. Game 2 now asks whether the Cavaliers can make the adjustment fast enough, or whether New York’s late-game formula is already tilting the series.
