The New York Knicks pulled away from the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 101-97 victory to steal Game 1 on the road and set the tone as they look to win their first playoff series in a decade.
And they did it probably without playing their best basketball.
The team shot 27.6% from 3-point range, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley were a combined 2-for-17 from the field, offensive possessions stalled at times and the Cavs scored 26 points off Knicks turnovers.
“My biggest takeaway from this game is that the Knicks played a crappy game overall, and they still won,” Alex Wolf of the Locked On Knicks podcast said. “This was about as bad on the overall we’ve seen the Knicks play in two months. They couldn’t make threes, the offense seemed a little disjointed at times, they had a number of possessions that would just end with shot-clock violations or near shot-clock violations…they just saved themselves by being way more committed to winning than the Cavs.
LISTEN TO LOCKED ON KNICKS REACT TO GAME 1 ON AUDACY
“…If this is the best the Cavs can throw at the Knicks and the Knicks can win a game playing like this, then things are looking pretty good for the knicks because they’re not going to shoot 27.5 percent from three the rest of the series.”
While Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle led the charge for the Knicks, perhaps the most impactful player was Josh Hart, who scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 33 minutes of action off the bench.
Hart, whom the Knicks acquired at the trade deadline from the Trail Blazers, hit the most clutch shot of the game — draining a go-ahead 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 1:48 remaining to give the Knicks a 95-93 lead.
“The absolute stones to take that three late in the game and make it,” Gavin Schall, Wolfe’s co-host added. “ To say, ‘I don’t care if I have dead legs I’m going to take this shot because this is the moment I’ve been waiting for’ was absolutely fantastic.”