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Instant analysis: NY Knicks blow 13-point lead in loss to undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers

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Instant analysis: NY Knicks blow 13-point lead in loss to undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers

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NEW YORK – Kenny Atkinson had one thought when he learned the Knicks had acquired center Karl-Anthony Towns earlier this month in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“When I saw that, I said they’re championship contenders,” the Cleveland Cavaliers head coach said prior to his team’s game against the Knicks Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

But on this night, the Cavaliers got the better of the Knicks.

Tom Thibodeau’s team blew a 13-point lead and the Cavaliers ultimately escaped with a 110-104 victory to improve to 4-0 on the season.

The Knicks fell to 1-2.

“Just missed some shots,” Thibodeau said. “Gave up some easy ones in transition. That hurt us.”

Jalen Brunson finished with 21 points on 8-of-24 shooting (0-of-4 from the perimeter) with the Cavs doing a solid job of limiting him offensively.

“Obviously they’ve got the two big guys down low,” Brunson said. “But I feel like I missed a lot of shots I normally make. It’s a part of the game. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn’t. Next time it’ll go in for me.”

The Cavs took the lead early in the fourth quarter when Georges Niang drained a three from the left corner to put Cleveland up one, then Donovan Mitchell drained a three from the left wing to push the lead to four with 10 minutes to go in the fourth.

The Knicks tied it at 84 when Josh Hart got a steal and then fed Deuce McBride on the break for a bucket with 8:31 remaining.  

It was close until the end, but the Cavaliers got the shots they needed in the closing minutest to escape the Garden with a victory.

Instant takeaways

Not enough three-point attempts

The Knicks want to shoot threes.

A lot of them.

But Monday night? The Knicks took just 28, making nine of them (32.1 percent).

“We have to generate more,” Thibodeau said. “Sometimes it’s a byproduct of deep-paint decisions, what’s the read. Obviously you want as many layups as you can get. If there’s two on you, spread it out. And then everyone has to – you can’t just stare at the ball, you have to stare at the whole court so you know if you’ve got to read the man in front of you, what’s he doing so we don’t get guys.”

The Knicks shot 27 against the Pacers Friday night and 30 against the Celtics in the opener.

They want to (and need to) take more.

“I’ve got to watch tape,” Towns said. “That’s really a simple answer. I just got to watch tape to see how we can get more threes up. Obviously Boston has something in place that they showed that the could get 61 threes up so there may be something there to learn from.”

Darius Garland comes up big for the Cavaliers

The Vanderbilt product finished with 34 points on 12-of-19 shooting (5-of-8 from deep) to lead the Cavaliers.

“He got going on us,” Thibodeau said. “Guys like that, felt like he got too much space. I’m going to look at the film to see what we can do better.”

Garland made a big defensive play with just more than a minute left, getting a chase-down block on Jalen Brunson with the Cavaliers clinging to a five-point lead.

He then drained two foul shots with 34.7 seconds to put Cleveland up by seven to essentially secure the win.

Karl-Anthony Towns had a quiet night

Towns finished with 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds and three assists.

The Knicks are still trying to find more effective ways to get him going offensively.

“Some of it, I want the game to tell him what to do,” Thibodeau said. “Some of it is if you’re getting double teamed in the post, and then there’s different ways he’s got to get in there as well. We’ve got to search that out. Whether it’s transition post-ups or off of what’s going on in the game with cutting and movement.”

Strong game from Mikal Bridges

Bridges struggled in the first half of the opener against the Boston Celtics, but he’s looked much better since the second half of that game and the last two – he scored 21 points against the Pacers Friday night.

Against the Cavaliers Monday night, Bridges finished with 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting (1-of-4 from the perimeter) with six rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block.

Bridges had a fast-break dunk in the second quarter that gave the Knicks a nine-point lead, then in the third quarter drained a three from the right corner – on a nice feed from Karl-Anthony Towns, who passed out of the low post as several defenders collapsed on him – to put the Knicks up 12.

Later that same period he hit a short jumper from the lane while falling to the court, giving the Knicks a nine-point lead.

Josh Hart leaves game late

Not an easy game for Hart, who at one point in the second half took a hard foul from Niang as he went up for a basket – Hart hit the ground hard. The officials reviewed it to see if it was a flagrant foul, but ultimately kept it as a common foul.

Then about midway through the fourth quarter, Hart was going for a loose ball near midcourt when his right knee collided with the knee of Caris LeVert. Hart again fell to the court holding his knee, and eventually got back up to his feet.

It was a loose-ball foul on LeVert, and Hart made both foul shots to cut the Knicks’ deficit to two.

He stayed in the game until a timeout, then went back to the locker room and never returned to the bench.

Hart finished with the game with 16 points and 13 rebounds – but he also committed five turnovers.

Thibodeau immediately after the game didn’t have much of an update on Hart’s status.

The Knicks’ next game is Wednesday night at Miami.

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