Knicks get torched by Mitchell, lose rematch with Cavs DON' & DUSTED
Maybe it was the tail end of a back-to-back. Maybe it was the first lineup tweak of the season, RJ Barrett ruled out shortly before the game. Maybe it was a fired-up Cavaliers team out for a measure of revenge after last year’s playoff elimination. Maybe it was Julius Randle’s deepening slump.
Regardless of the exact explanation, the Knicks looked like a flat team — or maybe just a team that couldn’t find its stroke.
The Knicks shot just 35 percent from the field and 17 percent from deep in a 95-89 loss to the Cavaliers at the Garden on Wednesday, splitting a homeand-home, back-to-back battle with Donovan Mitchell and a skeleton crew from Cleveland.
The Knicks (2-3) played without Barrett (knee) and the Cavs (2-3) without Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Ty Jerome. The Knicks — a deep team that relies on waves of talent rather than game-changing talent — should be built for games like this that test durability, but they couldn’t pass Wednesday’s shooting test.
“Their defense was tough. It was a defensive-type game,” coach Tom Thibodeau said after the Knicks scored just 13 points in the third quarter, when a onepoint lead became an eightpoint deficit that was not overcome. “Needed more easy baskets — we didn’t get those. The third quarter was a problem.”
The Knicks shot just 32 of 92 from the field and 5 of 30 from 3-point range, getting good looks but repeatedly unable to capitalize. Particularly off was Randle, who has shot poorly to begin the season and may have bottomed out in this one, going 3 of 15 from the floor and 0-for-6 from deep.
Randle often was a step slow defensively and did not make it to the free-throw line. Thibodeau repeatedly said he wanted to check the film before gauging Randle’s shot selection and whether he should be attacking more.
For his part, Randle said he is looking “at a lot of bodies” as defenses have tried to cut down lanes.
“We’re not getting anything easy,” said Randle, who is shooting just 27.6 percent from the field in five games this season. “I feel like we’re just working hard for everything right now.”
The Cavs did not shoot much better, but they had the best player on the court. Mitchell finished with 30 points on 9 of 22 shooting, bookending the game with excellence.
The Knicks went on a 7-0 run that cut the deficit to two with under three minutes left. But Mitchell answered with a 3 that silenced the crowd. Mitchell tried another 3 on the next possession and followed his miss with a rebound and a layup that brought the Knicks’ deficit to seven with 2:01 left, and it would not be whittled to a one-possession game again.
“Everybody in the league I’m sure is tired at one point or another. It’s no excuse,” said Immanuel Quickley, the rare Knick who shot decently in racking up 16 points on 7 of 16. “You just got to find a way to win those games.”
In the early going, it looked as if the Knicks would have to go from beating the Cavaliers on Tuesday to beating Mitchell on Wednesday. A game between the Knicks and Cavs turned into a battle between New York and a New Yorker.
Mitchell did everything. Catch-and-shoot 3s. Step-back 3s. Knifing around the defense and flipping up scoop shots. He scored the first 13 points for the Cavs, who didn’t have a second scorer until Tristan Thompson converted a hook at 2:42 of the first quarter.
In the first half, Mitchell poured in 23 of his team’s 49 points. His outburst kept the Cavaliers afloat and down just one at the break before the big third quarter.
“He’s a great player,” Thibodeau said of Mitchell, the Elmsford native who has lurked on the periphery of the Knicks for years. “I felt in the first half, he got away from us a lot more in the open floor. We’ve got to make sure we shore that up.”
Sure, the Knicks could use Mitchell. But for one game, it looked like the Knicks could use anyone who could make a jump shot.
“We didn’t make shots tonight,” Thibodeau said. “But if we defend and we rebound and keep our turnovers down, we’ll be in position to win.”