{"id":242242,"date":"2026-05-24T07:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T07:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/242242\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T07:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T07:30:14","slug":"knicks-vs-cavaliers-new-york-continues-dominant-run-to-take-3-0-lead-1-win-away-from-first-nba-finals-since-1999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/242242\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks vs. Cavaliers: New York continues dominant run to take 3-0 lead, 1 win away from first NBA Finals since 1999"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks<\/a> are one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance this century. And they\u2019re a full month away from their last loss.<\/p>\n

Facing a Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> team backed by an arena of mostly home fans \u2014 with Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift playing a featured role<\/a> \u2014 the Knicks posted a 121-108 win to take a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. No NBA team has ever come back from such a deficit in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

New York<\/a>\u2019s first chance at clinching their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 will be Game 4 on Monday (8 p.m., ESPN).<\/p>\n

The Knicks entered the game on a nine-game win streak in the playoffs, with a +212 point differential that was the largest in NBA history. That differential is now +225 across 10 games. Their last loss was Game 3 against the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> in the third round on April 23, a full month ago.<\/p>\n

No individual heroism was needed for this game, just another strong night from the Knicks starting lineup. Jalen Brunson led all scorers with 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting plus six assists. OG Anunoby<\/a> and Mikal Bridges<\/a> both topped 20 points, while Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> had 13 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.<\/p>\n

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The Cavaliers, meanwhile, got a combined 42 points on 36 shots from Donovan Mitchell<\/a> and James Harden<\/a>, who each committed five turnovers. They just haven\u2019t looked composed enough to survive since around the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter in Game 1, and now they need to do something even more unlikely than what the Knicks did at the end of that game.<\/p>\n

The Knicks are already a talented team, and they\u2019re winning on the margins too.<\/p>\n

New York never trailed and \u201cLet\u2019s Go Knicks\u201d rang around Rocket Arena at multiple points from the many confident Knicks fans who made the trip. A smothering second-half performance had the Cleveland fans heading for the exits with two minutes left.<\/p>\n

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The Cavs can only hope they come back for Game 4.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals went down at Yahoo Sports:<\/p>\n

Live coverage is over38 updatesSat, May 23, 2026 at 5:19 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:46 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

New York goes up 3-0 in the East finals after another dominant performance, and the Knicks are one game away from their first NBA Finals since 1999.<\/p>\n

Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:43 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:38 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

The Knicks are just running all over the Cavs, with Jalen Brunson picking up his 27th point as the home team appears to have checked out for the evening.<\/p>\n

Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:29 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

The Knicks have opened up a 17-point lead with about five and a half minutes to go.<\/p>\n

Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:25 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

Landry Shamet has back-to-back 3s for New York as it maintains a healthy fourth-quarter lead.<\/p>\n

Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:13 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports<\/p>\n

So far, not so much. New York has built a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 7:08 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers officially need a big comeback in the fourth quarter to avoid needing an unprecedented comeback in the series. Jalen Brunson appears full online and leads all scorers with 21 points.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 7:01 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:53 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson drives through the paint for a contested lay-up and the Knicks have their largest lead of the game at 12 points.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:50 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:44 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

The Cavs cut the deficit a little out of the half but the Knicks are responding. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridgers are both up to 16 points.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:21 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers fought back and tied it, but never actually took a lead. A late Knicks run has New York up by six at the half, with James Harden leading all scorers on 14. Harden is also upset about not getting a foul call on a 3-pointer at the buzzer.<\/p>\n

OG Anunoby leads with Knicks with 13 points.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:13 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:12 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Credit to the Cavaliers, this is the form they\u2019ve needed to show ever since that Game 1 horror show. Still plenty of game left, and the Knicks are still up by 2, but they need any momentum they can find.<\/p>\n

James Harden leads all scorers with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:09 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:07 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell went to the locker room, but is back on the bench and doesn\u2019t seem too bothered. Per ESPN, he says he\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 6:01 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

A 7-0 run has the Cavaliers down by only 2 with 6:42 left until halftime. Jarrett Allen leads them with 10 points, and they\u2019ve finally caused the Knicks to start missing.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 5:59 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 5:55 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Towns just picked up two fouls in less than a minute, so in comes Mitchell Robinson.<\/p>\n

\"JackSat, May 23, 2026 at 5:48 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Jack Baer<\/p>\n

Check that, the Knicks are back down to 37 points after a review found Karl-Anthony Towns didn\u2019t get their last basket off in time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks are one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance this century. And they\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1262,1266,9411,4777,27721,1555,14063,37011,94741,9,11,1104,10,6474,1473,15839],"class_list":["post-242242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-james-harden","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-history","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-og-anunoby","tag-taylor-swift","tag-travis-kelce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}