No comeback needed this time.
The New York Knicks followed up their dramatic Game 1 rally with a dominant Game 2 rout, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-93 at Madison Square Garden to take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Read more Trump’s $1.8B fund isn’t officially open yet. That hasn’t stopped applications.
The Knicks move to within two wins of their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, with Game 3 set for Saturday at 8 p.m. in Cleveland.
Josh Hart, one game after being benched in the forth quarter and overtime for his shooting struggles, scored a postseason career-high 26 points and added seven assists.
“Just a whale of a game from Josh,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
After Hart missed his first three 3-point attempts of Game 2, he made the Cavs pay for leaving him open from deep, finishing 5-for-11 from beyond the arc, including a pair of 3’s during an 18-0 Knicks run in the third quarter that opened a 71-53 lead.
“I knew I had to just keep shooting and if I did that I’d be good,” Hart said.
The Cavs cut the lead to seven with just under nine minutes remaining, but OG Anunoby answered with a 3 to put the Knicks up 88-78. The Knicks later went on a 9-1 run to open an 18-point lead, their largest of the game, to seal the win and extend their winning streak to nine games.
Jalen Brunson struggled with his shot but finished with 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting and a playoff career-high 14 assists. Karl-Anthony Towns recorded another double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Mikal Bridges had 19 points on 9-for-12 shooting, and Anunoby added 14 points.
The win came two days after Brunson sparked one of the NBA’s greatest postseason comebacks in Game 1 on Tuesday, helping the Knicks erase what was a 93-71 deficit with 7:52 to play in a 115-104 overtime victory.
The Cavs, coming off the collapse, responded well, taking a 27-24 lead after the first quarter on Donovan Mitchell’s three just before the buzzer.
The Knicks, as they did in Game 1, struggled early from deep, missing nine of their first 12 3-point attempts and finishing the first half 6-for-19. But they shot 51% from the field overall in the first half to take a 53-49 lead into the break, led by Towns (13 points), Hart (12 points) and Bridges (10 points).
Read more Ex-wife of Cuban spy who infiltrated volunteer group thankful for Castro indictment
Brunson, after scoring just two points in the first half, scored seven points early in the third during the 18-0 run. Brunson scored or assisted on 22 of the Knicks’ 32 points in the third as they outscored the Cavs 32-21 in the quarter.
The Knicks shot 52% from the field in the win, going 13 for 36 from deep.
The Cavs shot just 39 percent, going 9 for 35 from 3-point range and shooting just 69% from the free-throw line (22-for-32). Mitchell scored 19 of his team-high 26 points in the second half, and James Harden scored 12 of his 18 points in the first half.
Sam Merrill, who narrowly missed hitting the game-winner from deep at the end of regulation in Game 1, missed all seven of his 3-point attempts and finished with just four points.
The Cavs’ inability to make open shots helped put the Knicks on the cusp of playing June basketball for the first time in more than a quarter century.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock on Thursday, and the Knicks’ starters watched from the bench, fans chanted “Knicks in four! Knicks in four!”
For the second straight season, the Knicks sit two victories away from the Finals, but this time under very different circumstances. In last year’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers, the Knicks lost the first two games of the series on their home court, following a Game 1 collapse, en route to losing in six games.
This year’s Knicks team protected home court and have gone 10-2 in the postseason, with both losses being one-point defeats in the first round. They became the 12th NBA team to win nine straight games in a single postseason, with 11 of the previous 12 teams reaching the Finals.
Read more U.S. charges former Cuban pilot with murder alongside Raúl Castro: How they cracked ‘Code 22′