CAVS

for their eighth straight victory at Madison Square Garden.

Cleveland outscored New York 43-25 in the fourth, making more threes than the Knicks had baskets (eight). But the turnaround started late in the third with the second unit in.

“Now we just kept talking about chipping away, chipping away,” Dwyane Wade said. “And then as you saw Kyle Korver got going and then when you saw LeBron check back in, you knew, OK. You saw the waves coming.”

Tim Hardaway Jr. had 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Kanter added 20 points and 16 boards. But Kristaps Porzingis shot only 7 for 21 while scoring 20 points.

The game was just two days after James, following a victory in Dallas, said Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith Jr. should be a Knick. The Knicks passed on Smith in the draft, taking Ntilikina one spot earlier at No. 8.

James said he meant it as a shot at former

president Phil Jackson, and he was angry that he thought Kanter overreacted in his defense of Ntilikina. So it wasn’t surprising they were involved in an altercation late in the first quarter.

James dunked and then wouldn’t move out of the way as Ntilikina tried to take the ball back to the baseline to throw it in. Ntilikina

pushed James, who then exchanged words with Kanter after he ran in. James shoved Kanter, and both were given technical fouls.

“I don’t care ... what you call yourself. King, Queen, Princess, whatever you are. You know what, we’re going to fight and nobody out there (is) going to punk us,” Kanter said.

James’ response?

“I’m the King, my wife is the Queen and my daughter is the Princess,” he said. “So we got all three covered.”

The Knicks got hot after that, hitting the Cavs with a 15-0 burst early in the second to open a 47-31 lead.

Cleveland made a brief run early in the third quarter before New York extended the lead back to 17 points.