Jalen Brunson<\/a>, who had two points at halftime but finished with 19, plus a playoff career-high 14 assists.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s only now that the impact of Game 1 is really apparent. With a semblance of defense down the stretch Tuesday, Cleveland has this series tied 1-1 and holds home-court advantage as it goes back to Ohio.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
In reality, the Cavs are halfway to a sweep against a team that has been carrying an aura since early in the postseason. It\u2019s never great when you owner is trying to rally the troops on social media after two games.<\/p>\n
One more loss on Saturday in Game 3 (8 p.m. ET, ABC), and we\u2019ll be all but done here. If we\u2019re not already.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals went down at Yahoo Sports.<\/p>\n
Live coverage is over49 updatesThu, May 21, 2026 at 5:18 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
![\"Ian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779433692_934_dims.jpeg\"\/)
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:44 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
The Knicks take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 109-93 win over the Cavaliers. The Madison Square Garden crowd chanted \u201cKnicks in 4\u201d as the final seconds ticked off the clock.<\/p>\n
Josh Hart and Donovan Mitchell each scored 26 points for their respective teams. For Hart, that was a playoff career-high.<\/p>\n
Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson both added 19 points for the Knicks, with Brunson also dishing out 14 assists. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 18 and grabbed 13 boards.<\/p>\n
James Harden followed Mitchell with 18 points, six assists and two steals. Jarrett Allen scored 13 with 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:39 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
Mike Brown takes Josh Hart out of the game and the MSG crowd gives him a deserved ovation.<\/p>\n
Hart finished with a playoff career-high 26 points to lead the Knicks, in addition to four rebounds, seven assists and two steals.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:32 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
Since James Harden hit a 3, the Knicks are on an 8-1 run. Jalen Brunson dashed down the court for a fast-break layup off a Jarrett Allen missed jumper, giving New York a 103-86 lead.<\/p>\n
Cleveland calls timeout with 3:18 remaining in the fourth. Time running out on the Cavs here.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:28 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
For those who enjoy their celebrity sightings at Madison Square Garden, ESPN provided 20 seconds of star power.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:26 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
James Harden hits a 3 to cut the Knicks\u2019 lead to 95-85. But he subsequently gets shouldered in the lane by Jalen Brunson, who hits a short jumper in the lane.<\/p>\n
Are the Knicks going to target Harden down the stretch again here?<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:22 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
OG Anunoby shrugged off Jaylon Tyson at the basket for a layup, which was followed up by a Mikal Bridges\u2019 corner 3.<\/p>\n
That puts the Knicks back up 95-82 at the midway point of the fourth quarter. Kenny Atkinson calls timeout.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:16 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
OG Anunoby stopped the Cavaliers\u2019 run with a 3-pointer to restore the Knicks\u2019 lead to 88-78. But Donovan Mitchell answered with a floater to pull Cleveland to within eight points.<\/p>\n
Mike Brown calls timeout for the Knicks with 7:46 remaining in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:10 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Ian Casselberry<\/p>\n
Cleveland has scored the first four points of the fourth quarter. And after a loose ball foul on Jordan Clarkson, the Knicks are already in the penalty with nine minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779433692_629_dims.jpeg\"\/)
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:08 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers open the fourth quarter with a 4-0 mini-run and the deficit is down to 11 points. Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges just checked in a bit earlier than they usually do in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 7:00 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers need to do what the Knicks did to them in Game 1, after an 18-0 run early in the third quarter puts New York up big. Josh Hart\u2019s still at 24 points, while Karl-Anthony Towns has 18 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Donovan Mitchell has shaken off a slow start to lead Cleveland with 18 points. The Cavs bench is shooting 3-of-19 from the field.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:57 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:51 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
The Josh Hart Game. He\u2019s up to 24 points and 5-for-10 shooting from deep.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:49 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:46 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:44 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
Game 1: Cavaliers go up by 22 in the second half, lose.<\/p>\n
Game 2: Cavaliers go down by 15 in the second half, ???.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:43 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:34 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers tied it, but the Knicks have responded with a 9-0 run to build their largest lead of the game. Donovan Mitchell also just picked up his third foul.<\/p>\n
On the bright side for Cleveland, it\u2019s nice to see Kenny Atkinson remember he can call timeout.<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:30 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
The second half is underway,<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:15 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
Thu, May 21, 2026 at 6:14 PM PDT<\/p>\n
Jack Baer<\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell are a combined 3-for-12 for nine points through two quarters. The Knicks have done a better job making do, shooting 51.2% as a team to make up for the Cavaliers\u2019 rebounding advantage.<\/p>\n
Evan Mobley leads all scorers with 14 points. The rest of the Cavaliers are shooting 31.6% as a team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It turns out you can hold on to a big lead in the Eastern Conference finals after all.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,17603,320111,20455,87780,590,1025,1666,85],"class_list":["post-686824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-eastern-conference-finals","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-josh-hart","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}