Cavaliers even series with Knicks 107-90

    The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a slow start to dominate from the second quarter forward to defeat the New York Knicks 107-90 in game two of their Eastern Conference series.

Darius Garland led Cleveland with 32 points with Caris LeVert popping in with 24 off the bench.
Donovan Mitchell finished with 17 points and 13 assists to aid Cleveland in their win.

The deadlocked series moves to New York on Friday for game three with game four on Sunday afternoon.

Swashbucklings

1) Give Darius Garland credit for his drives to the basket and for even attempting a rare slam over half the Knicks frontcourt.

Garland has had a difficult job in unofficially handing over the reins as the team's superstar to Donovan Mitchell and still has handled it with quite a bit of class.

2) Garland scored 26 of his 32 points in a first-half explosion and would finish the game with six three-pointers from ten attempts.

When Garland has an outside shot dropping in, it forces teams to worry about both Garland and Donovan Mitchell, which opens things up for Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen closer to the basket.

It's all a trickle-down from the top.

3) As for Donovan Mitchell, he did finish with "only" seventeen points but added in a playoff career-high thirteen assists and Mitchell was more than effective.

The Cavaliers are best when they have four or five players between 15-20 points rather than Mitchell pouring in 40 plus and I think Mitchell knows that, which is why he's willing to pass the basketball when a player is especially shooting well as Darius Garland was in the win.

4) Jarrett Allen was called for a flagrant foul for a late-game under-the-basket collision with Julius Randle.

While I think the flagrant foul was a fair one, I do wonder why Randle, who entered the series with some wear and tear injuries, was even in the game at that point (Late in the game with Cleveland leading by around twenty), let alone driving to the basket.

5) Isaac Okoro was in the starting lineup but you would never know by the stat sheet as Okoro committed two fouls in the first three minutes, was benched by J.B. Bickerstaff, and never left the sideline for the remainder of the game.

6) This move meant more time for Caris LeVert, who led the team in forty minutes of play and scored twenty-four points on nine for sixteen shooting.

LeVert is a tough player to count on due to his inconsistency but on his good nights, LeVert is a massive help off a Cavalier reserve squad that badly could use his scoring.