Derek Fisher’s New York Knicks took the floor at Madison Square Garden ready to snap their five-game skid, and they had the Cleveland Cavaliers on the ropes at the famed arena—but they couldn’t land the knockout blow.
The Knicks led by as many as seven in the final quarter, but the Cavs came back and came out on top in a 90-87 final. Cleveland point guard Kyrie Irving outshined all—even Cavs star LeBron James—scoring 37 points, as well as the bucket that iced the game with 10 seconds to go.
“We prepared for everything, and figured it would involve both of those guys,” Fish said of James and Irving. “I don’t think it was a surprise necessarily that Kyrie ended up making the play himself.”
It was another heartbreaking defeat for Fish’s squad, which has recorded five single-digit losses in its last six games, as it continues to learn how to close out close contests.
LeBron, Kyrie and the Cavs came to MSG expecting to dish out some serious revenge after Derek’s club spoiled the King’s return to Cleveland early this season, but it did not come easy.
The two teams traded shots throughout the first quarter, switching the lead eight times and tying one another five times. Cleveland led 25-24 at the end of one.
Irving took over for the Cavs in the second, scoring 17 points off 5-of-7 shooting, but Tim Hardaway Jr. had the answer for the Knicks. The second-year guard knocked down 16 of his team-high 20 points in the first half, including 13 in the second quarter.
The Cleveland point guard knocked down the first bucket of the second frame, but Hardaway then sparked a 13-0 run. He started it by putting the ball on the floor for a driving layup before canning three shots from deep. Hardaway found open space on a triangle passing party with 7:54 left in the second, and he buried a triple to cap the run and extend the New York lead to 10.
After the Knicks run, the Cavs went on one of their own over the remainder of the quarter. With just 14 seconds to go in the half, James managed to find a wide-open Irving outside the arc. The Duke product and slipped away from a sleeping Knickerbocker D and splashed a three to make it just 53-50 in favor of the Knicks at the break.
James finished with 19 points and 12 assists, often dishing to the hot-handed Irving. The third head of the Cavs fearsome threesome, Kevin Love, was relatively quite on the night, tallying just 11 points and 11 boards.
As he often does, Fish made a late change to his starting lineup, throwing athletic forward Quincy Acy into the first five. It paid off in a big way, as Acy blanketed Love throughout the night with his aggressive defensive playstyle.
“I think Quincy did a really good job competing,” Fisher said. “I do think that Quincy has the ability to use his activity to impact guys, and that’s why we went with the starting lineup and have him out there the way we did tonight. He put a great effort out there on both ends of the floor.”
Acy put up 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and a block in one of his finer nights in a Knicks uniform. He picked his shots well and finished 6-of-8 from the field, none of which were more impressive than his fast break near the end of the third.
After a great block by Carmelo Anthony, Cavalier forward Shawn Marion recovered his own rebound and tried to dish it out to a teammate. Instead, it was intercepted by Iman Shumpert, who found Acy for a monster jam to put the Knicks up 61-55. Acy had seven points in the third quarter, while Amar’e Stoudemire added six to send New York to the fourth with a 73-68 lead.
Amar’e was also strong in the fourth, tacking on six big points to finish with 18 and nine boards. He threw down a vicious dunk over Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao, then made a nice move underneath for a lay-up that put the Knicks ahead 79-72 in the fourth.
However, the James-Irving duo brought Cleveland back. LeBron splashed a three and threw down a fast-break dunk—both off feeds from Irving—to put the Cavs up, 88-85.
Late in the game, Coach Fish called for another strategy move, inserting his young, athletic point guard, Shane Larkin, into the game in place of Pablo Prigioni.
“It was just kind of a feeling that I had that Shane could do some good things out there for us, and he did,” Fish said. “Everybody can’t play as much as they would like to. Having been a player, I know it doesn’t feel great when it’s not your turn. But we have a lot of guys who are fighting hard and fighting for minutes. Shane was good but Pablo was good in the first half as well so it wasn’t something that he didn’t do.”
The decision almost paid off in a huge way. In the waning seconds, Larkin attacked the paint and lofted up an open floater that would’ve put New York ahead by one, but the ball rolled off the rim and Cleveland pulled down the rebound. Fish was asked about the shot from Larkin.
“I don’t know if we could get a better shot than that from anybody,” Derek said. “Attacking the rim, floater right there, goes in and out. Those are plays right there where you go to sleep and know that you had a good opportunity to get the lead there. No guarantee we would’ve won the game, but I think that was a good shot off that possession.”
While Larkin couldn’t come through with the clutch bucket, Irving made it happen on the other end, kissing a tough layup high of the glass to make it a three-point game.
Anthony had a rough night offensively for New York, scoring just nine points, but he had an opportunity for some heroics late.
Similar to Tuesday night against the Brooklyn Nets, Melo had a one-on-one situation with the shot clock turned off. But once again, the basketball gods denied Melo his clutch bucket. To add insult to injury, his miss was tipped back out to Jose Calderon, who hit the game-tying three—but it came after the buzzer.
NEXT UP
The Knicks have a great chance to notch another win over another squad in search of an elusive victory, the Charlotte Hornets.
The Knicks nabbed a win over their North Carolinan foes early on in the season, and will look to do so again when they travel out to Time Warner Cable Arena.
Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.