So here we are. The Cavaliers, having clawed their way out of a Game 7 in Detroit against the top-seeded Pistons — their second seven-game gauntlet in as many rounds — pack their weary legs onto a plane bound for Manhattan, where a well-rested Knicks team awaits with home-court advantage, a healed OG Anunoby, and the quiet confidence of a club that has not so much advanced through this postseason as it has steamrolled it, dispatching Atlanta in five and Philadelphia in four.
Consider the symmetry, and the asymmetry. the Cavs, dominant at home this spring, yet winners of just one regular-season meeting against this Knicks team in three tries. Plus burdened, lest we forget, by the historical weight of an 0-4 record against New York in playoff series dating back through the franchise's lifetime. Cleveland has Donovan Mitchell, magnificent at 26 PPG a night, and James Harden in a supporting role that fluctuates between brilliance and absence. They have Mobley, they have Allen, they have a defense that ranks among the league's most disruptive. What they may not have, after fourteen playoff games in twenty-eight days, is fresh legs.
New York, by contrast, arrives at MSG looking like something they have not looked like in half a century. Brunson remains Captain Clutch, averaging 28 PPG a game in the postseason. And Karl-Anthony Towns, at long last, exorcising the demons of every "can't win the big one" whisper that ever trailed him, leading all players in true shooting percentage, shooting 48% from beyond the arc, dishing out nearly 7 assists a night.
And so the question, as it so often is in basketball, comes down to this: can the team with the better player win the series, or does the team with the better team prevail? Mitchell is too gifted, the Cavaliers too proud to be dispatched in a sweep. But the rest, the rhythm, the matchups, the building, the history all points to orange and blue skies.
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Consider the symmetry, and the asymmetry. the Cavs, dominant at home this spring, yet winners of just one regular-season meeting against this Knicks team in three tries. Plus burdened, lest we forget, by the historical weight of an 0-4 record against New York in playoff series dating back through the franchise's lifetime. Cleveland has Donovan Mitchell, magnificent at 26 PPG a night, and James Harden in a supporting role that fluctuates between brilliance and absence. They have Mobley, they have Allen, they have a defense that ranks among the league's most disruptive. What they may not have, after fourteen playoff games in twenty-eight days, is fresh legs.
New York, by contrast, arrives at MSG looking like something they have not looked like in half a century. Brunson remains Captain Clutch, averaging 28 PPG a game in the postseason. And Karl-Anthony Towns, at long last, exorcising the demons of every "can't win the big one" whisper that ever trailed him, leading all players in true shooting percentage, shooting 48% from beyond the arc, dishing out nearly 7 assists a night.
And so the question, as it so often is in basketball, comes down to this: can the team with the better player win the series, or does the team with the better team prevail? Mitchell is too gifted, the Cavaliers too proud to be dispatched in a sweep. But the rest, the rhythm, the matchups, the building, the history all points to orange and blue skies.
-------------------------VS-------------------------
TV:
PROJECTED LINEUPS:
