Karl-Anthony Towns was projected to start for the Knicks on May 21, 2026, as New York met the Cavaliers with a chance to build on a season series lead and a recent comeback that flipped the matchup. The Knicks’ expected five were Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Towns, while Cleveland was projected to open with James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
The numbers around the game told the story before tipoff. New York’s projected team total was 111.5, compared with 105 for Cleveland, and the Knicks had taken two of the first three meetings between the teams this season. That edge came with recent momentum attached: in the previous game, the Cavaliers blew a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter and New York closed on a 44-11 run over the final 12 minutes. Towns’ double-double was described as big time for the win, and Brown said the Knicks had used Anunoby well defensively.
That comeback mattered because the Knicks had spent much of the game fighting their shot. They started 2-of-21 from deep and were 4-of-24 on three-pointers before Cleveland collapsed, a stretch that underlined how quickly control can disappear when a lead starts to slip. New York also leaned on a different look in that game, using Landry Shamet for Josh Hart for 12.2 minutes, and that group finished plus-36, a reminder that the Knicks could change the shape of the matchup without changing the names at the top of the lineup card.
For Cleveland, the concern was not just the loss but how it unraveled. Atkinson said the Knicks “dominated us in the fourth quarter,” and the late numbers backed that up. Mitchell carried a 21.2% usage rate and a 25.0 TS% in the fourth quarter and overtime, while Harden posted a 35.1% usage rate and a 28.2 TS% in that same stretch. Those figures pointed to a team that had tried to answer the surge with its best creators and still could not slow the slide.
There was also the separate question of Mitchell’s health, but Atkinson brushed it aside, saying, “I don’t hear anything about a Mitchell injury.” That left the focus on execution, not excuses, as the Cavaliers tried to recover from a finish that changed the tone of the series and gave New York a 2-1 advantage heading into May 21.
For the Knicks, the path was straightforward: keep Towns involved, keep Anunoby attached to the right defensive matchups, and make Cleveland prove it can protect a lead against a team that already showed it can take a game apart in the final minutes. The Cavaliers knew that lesson already. The question was whether they could answer it before the fourth quarter got away from them again.
