{"id":162,"date":"2026-05-22T06:07:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=162"},"modified":"2026-05-22T06:07:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:07:59","slug":"knicks-move-2-wins-from-the-nba-finals-with-a-109-93-victory-over-the-cavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"Knicks move 2 wins from the NBA Finals with a 109-93 victory over the Cavs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>By BRIAN MAHONEY<\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Josh Hart scored a playoff career-high 26 points, Jalen Brunson had 19 points and 14 assists, and the New York Knicks moved halfway to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-93 on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=160\">\u2018A stone-cold killer\u2019: Northgate\u2019s Ingmar Nordberg leads Broncos past Mitty to reach first NorCal final<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mikal Bridges also scored 19 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 13 rebounds to help the Knicks win their ninth straight game. That\u2019s the NBA\u2019s longest postseason winning streak since the Boston Celtics won 10 straight on their way to the 2024 championship.<\/p>\n<p>Hart went 5 from 11 from 3-point range, burning a defensive strategy that seemed built around leaving him open from long range, and also had seven assists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust a whale of a game from Josh,\u201d Knicks coach Mike Brown said. <\/p>\n<p>Two nights after rallying from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter, the Knicks made sure they would be in control late with an 18-0 run in the third quarter that gave them a 71-53 lead. Fans chanted \u201cKnicks in four! Knicks in four!\u201d in the final minute, long after the starters had gone to the benches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn our mind it\u2019s 0-0. We\u2019ve got to win the next game. It\u2019s the most important game of the year and that\u2019s how we treat it,\u201d Towns said. <\/p>\n<p>Donovan Mitchell scored 26 points and James Harden had 18 for the Cavaliers, who will have to climb out of a 2-0 deficit for the second straight round. They host Game 3 on Saturday.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cNothing to hang our head about,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThey protected home court, and we\u2019ve seen this before so we\u2019re going to go to Game 3.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks are in the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year but haven\u2019t played for the championship since losing to the San Antonio Spurs in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=158\">Three more suspects arrested in Feb. 15 shooting at San Jose business<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Brunson scored 38 points and led the Game 1 comeback. He had only two points in the first half Thursday before making the first basket of the run that broke open the game and finished with the highest assist total of his playoff career. <\/p>\n<p>Hart was benched for the rally in Game 1, playing just three minutes combined in the fourth quarter and overtime. The forward had been shooting just 26.7% from 3-point range and after a third straight miss from long range early Thursday, he put his jersey in his mouth and bit it, bouncing the ball down hard in frustration three times. But he kept firing.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI knew I had to just keep shooting and if I did that I\u2019d be good,\u201d Hart said. <\/p>\n<p>Mitchell got off to a slow start with just seven points in the first half, triggering more of the questions that followed Game 1 about whether he was injured. His 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left gave Cleveland a 27-24 lead after one.<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks led 53-49 at halftime. The Cavs got the first two baskets of the third to tie it, but Brunson answered with a 3-pointer to start the 18-0 run. He had two more buckets in the burst and Hart hit a pair of 3-pointers, the latter capping it to make it 71-53 with 5:36 remaining in the third. After the Cavs scored five straight, Hart made another 3 and Towns scored to restore the 18-point advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland cut it to single digits with just under eight minutes left but ruined any chance of getting closer with poor free-throw shooting, missing 10 in the game and finishing at 68.8%. The Knicks eventually pushed their lead to 19 points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s difficult when you\u2019re not making shots,\u201d Harden said. \u201cIt puts twice as much pressure on you defensively to get stops.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=156\">Canadiens pounce on Hurricanes early in 6-2 win to open Eastern Conference Final<\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Knicks moved halfway to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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