The Knicks defeated the Cavaliers 121-108 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals to take a 3-0 series lead.
CLEVELAND — Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals was more of the same for the New York Knicks. Their 10th straight playoff win was also their 10th win in this postseason by double digits. They keep winning, and they keep winning big.
But their 121-108 victory on Saturday was also the first playoff game that they never trailed. The Cleveland Cavaliers erased a 10-point, first-quarter deficit, but never could string enough stops together to take control. The Knicks’ offense is humming, they’re up 3-0, and they can close this series out on Monday.
Jalen Brunson led six Knicks in double figures with 30 points, while Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby combined for 43 on 17-for-25 shooting. The Cavs continued to struggle from both 3-point range (12-for-41, 29%) and the free-throw line (12-for-19, 63%).
Here are some notes, quotes, numbers and film as the Knicks moved to within one game of their first trip to the Finals since 1999:
1. Transition game is one-sided
The total point differential in Game 3 was 13 points. The differential in transition was 20, with the Knicks outscoring the Cavs 30-10 according to Synergy tracking.
These teams ranked 15th and 16th in transition points per game in the regular season. The playoffs are generally slower, and half-court offense can be tough, because the opponent knows your plays and is ready to defend your primary actions.
So transition points, where you can get layups or open shots before the defense is set, are gold. And the Knicks have had the transition advantage all series, outscoring the Cavs by five transition points in each of the first two games and by 20 on Saturday.
It started early. When Evan Mobley missed a jump hook on the Cavs’ fourth possession, Mikal Bridges was wrestling with Dean Wade under the basket. But a few seconds later, he was slicing through the Cavs for a transition layup that forced Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson to call a timeout less than two minutes into the game:
The Knicks didn’t just run off of stops. And midway through the first quarter, they had two transition possessions (resulting in four points) after the Cavs had scored on the other end.
After a James Harden bucket, Josh Hart pushed the ball up the floor. Karl-Anthony Towns ran hard up the middle, caught Hart’s pass, and drew a foul on Sam Merrill. And after another Harden bucket, Hart threw a long inbound pass to OG Anunoby, who attacked Dean Wade and drew another foul.
If you’re the Cavs, that can’t happen. If you’re the Knicks, you just keep running until they stop you.
“We want to play fast against these guys at every opportunity we can get,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said afterward. “We don’t want to go against their set defense all the time, so we got to keep trying to play fast.”
The Cavs were not playing fast. That’s what you get when Harden is your point guard. It’s also what you get when you can’t get stops.
2. Knicks shutting down the Cavs’ attack
The Cavs’ offense continues to define their postseason.
The league average for efficiency in these playoffs is 111.6 points scored per 100 possessions. The Cavs are …
- 8-0 when they’ve scored more efficiently than that mark.
- 0-9 when they’ve scored less efficiently than that mark.
Over the three games in this series, the Cavs have scored just 103.4 per 100, 10.1 fewer than they had scored through the first two rounds. And those two series came against teams – Toronto and Detroit – that ranked fifth and second defensively in the regular season.
Some of it is bad shooting on good shots. The Cavs are 18-for-55 (32.7%) on wide-open 3-pointers in the conference finals after going 3-for-12 in Game 3. Sam Merrill’s potential game-winner at the end of regulation in Game 1 wasn’t wide open, but it was a pretty good look. And this is a different series if it doesn’t spin in and out.
But the Knicks deserve credit for keeping the Cavs out of transition and closing off the paint. And those 12 wide-open 3s the Cavs got on Saturday were far fewer than their totals in Games 1 (24) and 2 (19).
The Oklahoma City Thunder have had the No. 1 defense in each of the last two seasons, and the San Antonio Spurs have Victor Wembanyama. But when you account for the opponents that each team has faced, the No. 1 defense in the playoffs belongs to the Knicks, who’ve allowed an average of 11.1 fewer points per 100 possessions than their three opponents scored in the regular season.
And by that metric, this has been the best defensive series for any team in these playoffs, with the Cavs scoring 14.9 fewer per 100 than they did in the regular season.
For two years, we’ve questioned if a team with Brunson and Towns can defend at a high level. It seems that question has been answered.
3. Turnovers plague Cavs
In the regular season, the Cavs committed more than 18 turnovers per 100 possessions in 11 (13%) of their 82 games. In the playoffs, they’ve done it in six (35%) of 17.
They had 19 turnovers in Game 1, which they lost in overtime. And they had another 17 in Game 3, with 11 of them being live balls. Harden (six), Mobley (five) and Donovan Mitchell (five) accounted for 16 of the 17.
Again, credit the Knicks, especially Hart, who had three impressive deflections as the Cavs committed five live-ball turnovers on their first 10 possessions of the third quarter.
On the Cavs’ first possession of the quarter, Anunoby switched a Jarrett Allen screen for Mitchell. Allen tried to seal Hart, but he was somehow able to get his hands on Mobley’s pass over the top:
Three possessions later, the Cavs looked like they were going to have their first fast-break points of the night when Harden lofted a pass for Mobley, who was ahead of the pack after Hart missed a 3-pointer. But Hart sprinted back and made like a defensive back, leaping to deflect Harden’s pass before it reached Mobley’s hands.
On the Cavs’ very next possession, Mobley drove and drew help from Anunoby. Allen was seemingly open on the other side of the paint, but Hart cracked down just in time and deflected Mobley’ pass.
The Cavs were also just a little sloppy on Saturday. While the open 3s weren’t falling, they did shoot better than their expected field goal percentage for the first time in this series. But while they shot better, they played worse.
4. Knicks keep playing like it’s 0-0
The edge in a playoff series between two good teams usually belongs to the more desperate of the two, the team that’s trailing or (if a series is tied) the team that can least afford to lose. That obviously should have been the Cavs on Saturday, but the Knicks continue to play with the edge of a team that’s desperate to win.
“You just keep your mind on the task at hand,” Towns said. “We found a way to win tonight, but we gotta have the same desperation like it’s 0-0, Game 1.”
Bridges also brought up the “0-0” thing when asked to compare this run the Knicks are on to his national championships with Villanova.
“Just taking it possession by possession,” he said. “And having that 0-0 mentality and playing desperate.”
“They’re holding each other accountable,” Brown said of his players. “They’re believing in the process for each other, and they’re playing with a competitive spirit that’s unmatched. If you do those things while focusing on the detail and communicating and bringing energy and effort, you have a chance to string some games together.”
One more and they’ll be in the Finals. Game 4 is Monday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
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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.
