As the series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3, the Knicks continue to roll, led by Jalen Brunson and a red-hot Mikal Bridges.
CLEVELAND — The New York Knicks are one win from sweeping the Eastern Conference Finals and reaching the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years.
And they’ve had no problem closing out series during the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
In the first round, they won Game 6 in Atlanta by 51 points. In Game 4 of the conference semis vs. Philadelphia, they were up 20 points late in the first quarter and led by as many as 44.
So the Cleveland Cavaliers should be expecting the Knicks’ best in Game 4 on Monday (8 ET, ESPN), and they can’t worry about the history of teams down 3-0.
They certainly have the ability to win on any given night, and their first goal is to send this series back to New York.
Here are three things to watch for as the Knicks look to close it out and earn themselves another long break before the Finals:
1. Can the Knicks’ offense stay hot?
Over their 13 playoff games, the Knicks have an effective field goal percentage* of 59.3%. That is:
- The best mark for any team in NBA playoff history.
- A jump from the Knicks’ mark of 55.7% (ninth best) in the regular season.
- About 13% better than the Knicks’ expected effective field goal percentage (52.6%), given the quality of their shots.
*Effective field goal percentage = (FGM + (0.5 * 3PM)) / FGA
OG Anunoby (27-for-53, 51%) and Landry Shamet (17-for-31, 55%) have each made more than half of their 3-point attempts, while Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges are a combined 51-for-102 (50%) on pull-up 2-pointers.
Are these numbers unsustainable over a larger sample size? Absolutely. But you don’t get large sample sizes in the playoffs. The Knicks have gotten hot at the right time of year, they need just one more win to reach the Finals, and they’ve become very comfortable attacking the Cavs’ defense in a variety of ways.
James Harden isn’t quite off the hook, but Donovan Mitchell has become Brunson’s new favorite target, with the guy Mitchell has been guarding setting 21 ball-screens for Brunson over the last two games. The Knicks scored 25 points on 19 chances (1.32 per) with that action in Games 2 and 3.
The Cavs can’t wait for the hot shooting to cool off, and they’ve got to find a way to make New York feel uncomfortable offensively if they want to extend this series.
2. The Cavs need a (rare) good start
Game 3 was the first game in these playoffs where the Knicks never trailed. But as noted above, they’ve clobbered their opponents when they’ve had a chance to close out series this year. They led by at least 20 in the first quarter of both close-out games.
The Cavs are vulnerable to a bad start. They’ve now trailed by double-digits in 11 of their 17 playoff games, with Game 3 on Saturday being the fifth time they’ve trailed by double-digits in the first quarter. Overall, they’ve been outscored by 7.1 points per 100 possessions in their 17 first quarters in these playoffs.
Those struggles are mostly about their offense, which has scored 105.7 per 100 (committing more than 20 turnovers per 100 possessions) in the first quarter.
Cleveland obviously can’t afford another slow start. The Knicks had the league’s third best record (46-6) when leading by double-digits in the regular season, and they’re 10-1 when leading by double-digits in the playoffs, with the only loss having come in Game 2 of the first round.
3. Lineup change?
The Knicks defeat the Cavaliers 121-108 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals to take a 3-0 series lead.
Maybe a better start with come with a different starting lineup. The Cavs’ lineup wasn’t bad in the first two games, but it’s scored just 69 points on 66 offensive possessions (105 per 100) in the series. Dean Wade isn’t solely responsible for the offensive struggles, but he’s attempted just nine shots in 67 minutes. The Cavs could raise the offensive ceiling by replacing him with Sam Merrill, Max Strus or Jaylon Tyson.
Merrill has played only 32 total minutes (regular season and playoffs combined) alongside the other four starters, but the Cavs have scored 80 points on 66 offensive possessions (121 per 100) in those minutes. Merrill had a rough Game 2 (0-for-7 from 3), but he was 2-for-4 from deep on Saturday.
Wade has been the primary defender on Brunson, who surely wouldn’t mind going against Merrill instead. But given how often the Cavs have switched screens, the identity of Brunson’s initial defender is less important than it would if they were trying harder to keep that defender attached to the Knicks’ leading scorer.
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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
