After holding onto a 101-97 win in Game 1 on Saturday, the Knicks take the court against the Cavaliers again on Tuesday hoping to snag a surprising 2-0 lead in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
#5 New York Knicks (47-35) @ #4 Cleveland Cavaliers (51-31)
How to Watch:
- Date: Tuesday, April 18th
- Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
- Channel: TNT
Betting Odds:
- Spread: CLE -5
- Moneyline: CLE (-205), NYK (+170)
- Game total: 214
Preview:
The fact that the Knicks were able to win Game 1 despite Donovan Mitchell going for 38 points on 14-of-30 shooting is a major achievement. The Cavaliers as a team also outshot the Knicks 43.4% from the field (to 42%) and 32.3% from beyond the arc (to 27.6%).
In many ways, the Knicks’ offense was limited by a Cavaliers’ defense that led the league with 106.9 points allowed per game. Julius Randle was the only Knicks player to make more than one three-pointer, and Mitchell Robinson was the only Knicks’ start to shoot over 50% from the floor, and he hit 3-of-5 shots.
However, the Knicks were able to secure the win using their physicality, which was a huge blow to the Cavaliers and has been a major talking point over the last few days with Darius Garland saying Cleveland should “hit first and see how the refs react instead of being punched in the face and just laying down to it.”
That’s a nice sentiment for Garland to express, but the truth is that New York took advantage of the same weaknesses that Cleveland has sported all year.
In our series preview, we mentioned that the Cavaliers are one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the league. They ranked 25th in the NBA with 31.4 defensive rebounds per game and 20th by allowing their opponents to grab offensive rebounds at a 28.5% rate.
In Game 1, the Knicks won the rebounding battle 51-38 and had 17 offensive rebounds to just 11 for Cleveland. Two of those offensive rebounds, by Randle and Isaiah Hartenstein, helped to decide the game in the final minutes.
The Cavaliers can say they want to play more physically, but they really need to reverse a season-long issue with their rebounding rate.
Coming into the series, the Knicks also had an advantage in free throws and turnovers. They attempted the third-most free throws per game in the NBA (25.5 per game) and were fourth-best in the NBA with just 13.0 turnovers per game.
In Game 1, they only attempted one more free throw than Cleveland, but New York shot 19-of-22 from the charity stripe (86.4%), while Cleveland was just 15-of-21 (71.4%). New York also turned the ball over 13 times, while forcing 11 steals, two more than Cleveland.
So, in the three areas where the Knicks held an advantage coming into the series, they delivered during Game 1, which moved them to 4-1 on the season against the Cavaliers.
Also working in New York’s favor is that Randle has had two full days since Game 1 to rest his ankle. The forward was obviously a little rusty on Saturday night and also mentioned that his conditioning wasn’t where he’d like it to be. The extra time to rest and recover should help him to inch closer to 100% for Tuesday night.
Which is big news since bench forward Josh Hart might not be at 100% himself.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau admitted that Josh Hart wasn’t a full participant in practice on Monday due to a sprained ankle he suffered in the final minutes of Saturday’s game. With Hart’s status for Game 1 in doubt, the Knicks will need more from Sixth Man of the Year favorite Immanuel Quickley, who had just three points and three rebounds in the first game while missing all five of his shot attempts from the field.
In four games against the Cavaliers this season, Quickley has scored just 10.5 points in 25.2 minutes per game while chipping in 4.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists, so the Knicks will be hoping he can figure out this tough defense if he needs to step up without Hart.
The Knicks have allowed just 103.6 points per game against Cleveland during the five games this season. When they allow fewer than 112.3 points, the Knicks are 32-9-1 against the spread and 34-8 overall. That makes it feel like taking the Knicks +5 points is a pretty solid bet, even if you don’t think they can win the game outright.
For more Knicks coverage, visit amNY Sports
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