Jalen Brunson was better than Donovan Mitchell.
It might be a simplistic view of Sunday’s pivotal Game 4, but it was also the main reason the Knicks left MSG with a 3-1 series lead and full control of the first round.
Brunson, the reliable point guard and leader, dropped a game-high 29 points in the 102-93 matinee victory, carrying the Knicks on a night that Julius Randle’s pouting and lackadaisical effort placed him on the bench.
Mitchell, meanwhile, was an ineffective mess for the Cavaliers, missing 13 of his 18 shots while producing just 11 points with six turnovers. The Cavs All-Star managed just two points in the fourth quarter, when Brunson and RJ Barrett carried New York’s offense.
“I played like sh-t,” said Mitchell, the New York-bred star who nearly became a Knick in the summer. “I’m the leader of this group. Everybody did their job, and I didn’t. It’s as simple as that.”
A two-point Knicks’ advantage heading into the fourth quarter quickly bulged to nine with 5:21 remaining, when Josh Hart, another Knicks hero Sunday, converted a lay-up.
About four minutes later, Brunson’s 3-pointer sealed the victory in front of another supercharged MSG crowd. The Knicks now have three chances to win their first playoff series victory in a decade, beginning Wednesday in Cleveland.
“Don’t think about closing it out at all,” Brunson reasoned. “Just think of it like we’re going into a hostile environment. They’re going to play desperate, and we just have to be able to bring it. We have to focus on one possession, one quarter at a time, and keep building off that. Just keep fighting. We’ll go from there.”
Barrett added 26 points — including 10 in the final 10 minutes — drawing frequent Garden chants. With Randle seated at end of the bench for the entire fourth quarter, the Knicks also benefited from clutch moments by Obi Toppin, who grabbed five offensive rebounds.
The Cavaliers were again annihilated on the glass, a theme of the series.
In Friday’s Game 3, the Knicks held the Cavs to 79 points, the smallest total for any team this season, not just in the playoffs.
Afterwards, Mitchell Robinson agreed that Cleveland players were hesitant to challenge him at the rim. The center even grabbed his arms and shivered, calling the Cavs “shook up.”
Two days later, little changed in the first half.
The Cavs were out hustled and outmuscled, trailing by 15 in the second quarter. But they recovered in the third quarter, in large part due to Randle’s lethargy. Cleveland targeted the power forward, who seemed to have little interest in rotating on pick-and-rolls or even putting up his hands to contest shots.
The Knicks were already down their starting shooting guard, Quentin Grimes, who suffered a bruised shoulder in Game 2 and was ruled out Sunday. The 22-year-old’s arm was in a sling on the bench.
The circumstances thrust Hart into the lineup, and he became an effective Mitchell stopper. It was the first time Hart and Brunson starting on the same team since they were at Villanova.
And the Cavs couldn’t stop them.
“It’s like fairy-tale stuff, being with him,” Hart, who finished with 19 points in 40 minutes, said about Brunson. “I’ve watched him since Day 1. To see where he is now, and be on the same team again, it’s pretty awesome.”
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