{"id":654278,"date":"2026-05-20T11:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654278\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:20:12","slug":"game-1-collapse-that-cant-happen-leaves-cavs-searching-for-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654278\/","title":{"rendered":"Game 1 collapse ‘that can’t happen’ leaves Cavs searching for answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0The Cavaliers<\/a> describing their Game 1 loss<\/a> to the New York Knicks<\/a> was an internal battle of fact vs. feeling.<\/p>\n

Yes, it was only one loss. Yes, it only counts one time. Yes, the series is only 1-0<\/a>. Those phrases were repeated time and time again, and they do stand true.<\/p>\n

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But boy, what a loss it was<\/a>. A best-of-seven series can be a long, grinding mountain to climb. And Game 2s often feature the biggest adjustments. But this might have been about as back-breaking of a Game 1 loss as humanly possible.<\/p>\n

All it took was Jalen Brunson<\/a> momentarily doing things that didn’t seem humanely possible, as he went absolutely berserk in the fourth quarter to lead the Knicks to a 115-104 Game 1 win at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

1 \/ 6<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavs vs. New York Knicks, Game 1 photos<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) controls the ball against Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley (4) during the first quarter of game one of the eastern conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 6<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavs vs. New York Knicks, Game 1 photos<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) controls the ball against Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley (4) during the first quarter of game one of the eastern conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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2 \/ 6<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavs vs. New York Knicks, Game 1 photos<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges (25) after being called for a foul against Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley (4) during the first quarter of game one of the eastern conference finals during the 2026 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 6<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavs vs. New York Knicks, Game 1 photos<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden (1) shoots against New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby (8) during the first quarter of game one of the eastern conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 6<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavs vs. New York Knicks, Game 1 photos<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) shoots against New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the first quarter of game one of the eastern conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 6<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavs vs. New York Knicks, Game 1 photos<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; General view of t-shirts and rally towels on seats before game one of the eastern conference finals during the 2026 NBA playoffs between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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6 \/ 6<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavs vs. New York Knicks, Game 1 photos<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; General view of Madison Square Garden before game one of the eastern conference finals during the 2026 NBA playoffs between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

At one point, the Cavs<\/a> led by 22 points. At another, analytically, they had a 99.9% chance of winning and stealing a game in New York. And then it was all wiped away, one Brunson floater or Landry Shamet<\/a> 3 at a time.<\/p>\n

Now, the Cavs aren’t just trying to respond to a Game 1 loss, they have to process it in less than 48 hours.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/p>\n

May 19, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) reacts with teammates after losing to the New York Knicks in overtime of game one of the eastern conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Postgame, Donovan Mitchell<\/a> echoed the same sentiment, that they must remember that it’s just one game. But the simmering frustration eventually boiled to the surface.<\/p>\n

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“It’s one loss. It’s a bad loss, but all we can do is go back and watch the film and fix it,” Mitchell said. “We’re up 22 [and still lost] \u2014\u00a0that can’t happen. But you watch the film, you get ready for Game 2.<\/p>\n

A few moments later, Mitchell added to his description when asked about his message to his teammates after the game.<\/p>\n

“I said it in the locker room \u2014\u00a0just that, we lost,” Mitchell said. “We F****** blew it. All right, let’s respond for Game 2. Simple as that.”<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson stats in NBA playoffs<\/p>\n

Coach Kenny Atkinson was pleased with how the Cavs looked right up until the fourth quarter. There, the Cavs’ ball movement died, which in turn gave life to any hope the Knicks had left.<\/p>\n

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“My only regret,” Atkinson said. “And this can happen when you get a little fatigued. I think it just stopped moving. We were pinging the ball all over the place, great ball movement, and then it just got a little stagnant.”<\/p>\n

Players across many levels and different sports all will echo similar sentiments when noting the importance of moving forward after a bad result, especially during a best-of-seven series. The Cavs will be putting all of that to the test to an extremely high degree.<\/p>\n

“Obviously this is a tough one,” said James Harden<\/a>. “But we’ve had opportunities to close teams out at home, we didn’t do it. So we’re literally figuring everything out on the fly, which is a good thing. And tonight was one of the feelings when it’s a bad thing. But we’ll watch film, get better and we’ve been really good at responding and coming back and bouncing back. So it’s no different.”<\/p>\n

The Cavs can look to the film to see a series of positives moving forward, but they’ll also likely find a pit of despair in the way of several decisions or plays they’d like to have back.<\/p>\n

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Haden was picked on a bit on the defensive end during the Knicks’ 18-1 run, which was led by Brunson. The Cavs opted to only use one timeout during that stretch. On and on, the Cavs have enough film study material to put together a trilogy movie night.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I like to hold onto my timeouts,” Atkinson said when asked about letting the Cavs play through the New York rush. “I didn’t want to have one time out at the end of the game, one- or two-point game. I tried to hold them.”<\/p>\n

The Cavs were so painfully close to rebounding to the Knicks’ 18-1 comeback run and still stealing Game 1, that on Sam Merrill<\/a>‘s attempted game-winner at the fourth-quarter buzzer, ESPN announced Mike Been actually was halfway through his trademark “Bang!” call until the ball rattled around and out of the rim while halfway down.<\/p>\n

If that shot falls, the lessons remain, but without the cost of Game 1. It’s something else the Cavs can’t change with Game 2 looming.<\/p>\n

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It’s only one loss, after all \u2014\u00a0if the Cavs can mentally and physically rebound from one of the most deflating playoff losses in recent NBA memory.<\/p>\n

“That can’t happen, but it did,” Mitchell said. “We play in two days. We can’t sit here and let it kill our momentum, kill what we’ve been doing. It’s not a good loss, but we got to go out there and respond for Game 2.<\/p>\n

Ryan Lewis covers the Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Donovan Mitchell, James Harden respond to Cavs’ Game 1 loss to Knicks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0The Cavaliers describing their Game 1 loss to the New York Knicks was an internal battle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[6250,13054,36783,6418,25171,355,361,111822,99],"class_list":["post-654278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cavs","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-james-harden","tag-landry-shamet","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sam-merrill","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}