NEW YORK — Josh Hart scored a playoff career-high 26 points, Jalen Brunson had 19 points and 14 assists, and the New York Knicks moved halfway to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-93 on Thursday night.
Mikal Bridges also scored 19 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 13 rebounds to help the Knicks win their ninth straight game. That’s the NBA’s longest post-season winning streak since the Boston Celtics won 10 straight on their way to the 2024 championship.
Hart went 5-for-11 from three-point range, burning a defensive strategy that seemed built around leaving him open from long range, and also had seven assists.
“Just a whale of a game from Josh,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
Two nights after rallying from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter, the Knicks made sure they would be in control late with an 18-0 run in the third quarter that gave them a 71-53 lead. Fans chanted “Knicks in four! Knicks in four!” in the final minute, long after the starters had gone to the benches.
“In our mind it’s 0-0. We’ve got to win the next game. It’s the most important game of the year and that’s how we treat it,” Towns said.
Donovan Mitchell scored 26 points and James Harden had 18 for the Cavaliers, who will have to climb out of a 2-0 deficit for the second straight round. They host Game 3 on Saturday.
“Nothing to hang our head about,” Mitchell said. “They protected home court, and we’ve seen this before so we’re going to go to Game 3.”
The Knicks are in the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year but haven’t played for the championship since losing to the San Antonio Spurs in 1999.
Brunson scored 38 points and led the Game 1 comeback. He had only two points in the first half Thursday before making the first basket of the run that broke open the game and finished with the highest assist total of his playoff career.
Hart was benched for the rally in Game 1, playing just three minutes combined in the fourth quarter and overtime. The forward had been shooting just 26.7 per cent from three-point range and after a third straight miss from long range early Thursday, he put his jersey in his mouth and bit it, bouncing the ball down hard in frustration three times. But he kept firing.
“I knew I had to just keep shooting and if I did that I’d be good,” Hart said.
Mitchell got off to a slow start with just seven points in the first half, triggering more of the questions that followed Game 1 about whether he was injured. His three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left gave Cleveland a 27-24 lead after one.
The Knicks led 53-49 at halftime. The Cavs got the first two baskets of the third to tie it, but Brunson answered with a three-pointer to start the 18-0 run. He had two more buckets in the burst and Hart hit a pair of 3-pointers, the latter capping it to make it 71-53 with 5:36 remaining in the third. After the Cavs scored five straight, Hart made another three and Towns scored to restore the 18-point advantage.
Cleveland cut it to single digits with just under eight minutes left but ruined any chance of getting closer with poor free-throw shooting, missing 10 in the game and finishing at 68.8 per cent. The Knicks eventually pushed their lead to 19 points.
“It’s difficult when you’re not making shots,” Harden said. “It puts twice as much pressure on you defensively to get stops.”
