Depending on which team you were rooting for last night determines if you watched an unbelievable collapse or a historic comeback. I am sure there were a lot of Cleveland fans who went to bed before the fourth quarter expecting to wake up to a 10+ point victory. There were probably just as many upset Knicks fans who turned the game off around the same time. Needless to say fans of both teams woke up to a surprise this morning, a bad one for Cleveland fans and a welcomed one for the Knicks fans. Let's talk about what we saw in game one last night!
Knicks Land the First Punch
There were plenty of jabs in the first quarter landed by the Cavaliers. They opened the game strong and played the first six minutes in a way they would want to play the rest of the game. Cleveland jumped out to an early six point lead. Shortly after they went ice cold. Sitting with a lead of 13-8 the Cavaliers played the sloppiest basketball you could have expected of them, or so I thought. More on that later. They would miss their next six field goal attempts, turn the ball over, and find themselves in a seven point hole. Over the course of the next three minutes of game time the Cavs and Knicks would trade baskets. The first quarter came to a close with the margin still at seven in favor of the Knicks.
Cavaliers Respond in a Big Way
The Cavaliers turned the ball over five times in the first quarter resulting in a seven point deficit to start the second quarter. A deficit that would surely grow larger if they could not clean up the turnovers and protect the basketball. Interestingly enough for Cleveland, they would turn the ball over more in the second quarter, six times, but still take a lead into the half. The Knicks shot the ball at an astounding fifty-three percent in the second quarter. That is nothing to shake your head at when you're looking back at the stat sheet at the end of the game. How was Cleveland able to not only erase the seven point hole but take a lead into the break while turning the ball over as much as they did? The Cavaliers shot an even better percentage from the field, fifty-nine percent! They say three is more than two and the Cavs lived by that in the second quarter. Both teams made ten buckets in the second quarter. The Knicks only made one three pointer. The Cavaliers made six. When you turn the ball over six times in a quarter you better make just as many threes as turnover if you want to stay in the game. The Cavaliers did just that. The Cavs ended the second quarter on a 21-8 run taking a two point lead into half, 48-46.
The Cavaliers continued their success shooting in the third quarter while the Knicks took a massive step back. What started as just a two point lead for the Cavs quickly ballooned to ten points growing as large as sixteen points. Cleveland could do no wrong in the third quarter. They shot the ball at fifty percent while knocking down four threes, doubling up the Knicks who made just two. They not only protected the basketball but they also forced the Knicks to play a bit sloppier than they had in the first half. The Cavs turned the ball over just three times while disrupting the flow of the Knicks enough to turn them over five times, the most turnovers the Knicks had in any quarter this game. It wasn't only the turnover category that the Cavs out performed the Knicks in during the third quarter. They out rebounded the Knicks fourteen to eleven, had nine assists to New York's three, and outscored them thirty-five to twenty-three. All of that led to the Cavaliers finding themselves up fourteen points as they waited for the fourth quarter to begin.
Knicks Won't Quit
I am still not sure how the Knicks did what they did to pull out a win in game one. Everything that went wrong for the Knicks late in the second quarter and for the entirety of the third quarter switched sidelines. They completely flipped the script on Cleveland. In the fourth quarter the Knicks out rebounded the Cavaliers thirteen to seven. They had more assists than the Cavaliers, four to three. They made more shots than the Cavs, thirteen baskets on fifty-nine percent shooting. The Cavs made just five buckets on twenty-nine percent shooting. They outscored Cleveland thirty-two to eighteen completely erasing the fourteen point hole they started the quarter in. The fourth quarter came to a close with the Knicks on a 30-8 run over the last eight minutes. The Knicks stole all the momentum away from Cleveland and forced overtime.
Most times when heading into an overtime period it is easy to tell who is ready for another five minutes and who is not. Last night it was pretty clear to me that the Knicks won the game the second they sent it to overtime. They had every ounce of momentum in the building, players were locked in, the fans were electric, not a place you want to be as a road team. Let alone a road team that just collapsed in a historic way. All of that proved to be true as New York coasted through the extra period to an eleven point win. The Cavaliers shooting got worse as the Knicks got better. Cleveland made just one shot in overtime logging a thirteen percent field goal percentage. While it is a small sample size compared to the fourth, the Knicks increased their shooting percentage to sixty percent in overtime. New York closed out game one on a forty-four to eleven run. An unbelievable comeback that leaves Cleveland with a bad taste in their mouths and New York with all the confidence in the world. If Cleveland isn't careful they could find themselves in the middle of a blowout in game two.
As always Who Dey & Go Redlegs!
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