CLEVELAND – Jalen Brunson remained a handful for the Cavs, even with their perimeter stopper back in the lineup.
A narrative heading into Game 1 was the return of Isaac Okoro from injury would slow down Brunson, who had dropped 48 points against the Cavs in their final regular-season matchup.
Except Okoro had such little success that coach JB Bickerstaff used reserve Cedi Osman to mark Brunson in the fourth quarter of New York’s 101-97 victory.
And Okoro, who gave up 12 points to Brunson in the third quarter, was benched for all but 1 ½ minutes of that final period. The 22-year-old then alluded to Brunson baiting fouls.
“He’s a quick guard. He tries to get you at different angles,” Okoro said of Brunson. “Tries to draw cheap fouls. So when guarding him, you got to be mentally prepared for all that.”
Brunson’s effectiveness is in his craftiness. He’s physical with a deceptively quick first step, using awareness of the defender’s position to get his preferred spot for a shot, foul or pass.
Add in difficult shotmaking and Brunson has emerged as New York’s worthy counter to Donovan Mitchell’s starpower. The pair went head-to-head in the second half of Game 1 (Brunson had 21 points after the break; Mitchell had 20), which ended with the Knicks snatching away home court advantage.
“You put the ball in his hands, there’s gonna be a lot of good that come out of it,” RJ Barrett said.
Okoro, who took an elbow to the face from Randle in the third quarter, hadn’t played since March 23 because of a sore knee.
“That’s hard. To be out and come back in the playoff game at this level of intensity for your first time,” said Bickerstaff.
DEPTH WINS
There are several reasons the Knicks closed better than the Cavs in Game 1.
Here’s a big one: They had fresher legs.
As predicted, the Knicks got better production from its bench in Sunday’s victory, outscoring Cleveland’s reserves, 37-14.
That discrepancy took into account a dud from Sixth Man of the Year candidate Immanuel Quickley, who looked overwhelmed by the moment while missing all five of his shot attempts and committing three turnovers.
But Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein dominated their opportunities and allowed the Knicks’ top-3 players – Brunson, Randle and Barrett – to each log 33 minutes or less. By comparison, Cleveland’s Big 3 of Mitchell, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen each played 43 minutes.
Caris LeVert was particularly damaging to the Cavs while shooting 1-for-7 off the bench.
“Obviously our bench has to give us a spark,” Bickerstaff said. “We have to find a way to manufacture some buckets. How do we create for one another? And how does our bench support our starting cast? At some point in time, we got to find a way to put the ball in the basket. That unit kind of struggled there.”
Ironically, the Knicks preserved their depth by not trading for Mitchell in the summer. It would be quite a twist if the bench is the reason Mitchell is bounced from the playoffs.
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