Knicks rally but fall short in loss to Cavaliers

On the road in the second night of a back-to-back, the Knicks had shrugged off the daunting task in front of them. But they had added to the degree of difficulty, falling behind the Cleveland Cavaliers by 15 points early in the fourth quarter.

Now they had the ball with a chance to win the game in the final seconds. But Julius Randle’s desperation 37-foot turnaround three-pointer fell far short, and the Knicks began this arduous portion of the schedule with a 95-93 loss to the Cavaliers on Monday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The Knicks had fought back with rookie Quentin Grimes draining three-pointers and RJ Barrett getting to the rim. But after tying the score at 91 with 2:28 remaining on Randle’s driving layup, they missed their final four shots of the game, three of which were taken from between 30 and 38 feet from the hoop.

Barrett missed his three-pointer with five seconds left and the Knicks trailing by one. "In the moment, I felt like I got a good look," he said. "Maybe I could have drove it, but it happened. I missed."

With two seconds remaining, Evan Mobley made his first free throw to give the Cavaliers a two-point lead but missed the second. After Randle pulled down the rebound and called time with 1.7 seconds left, Alec Burks struggled to inbound the ball from the sideline, putting Randle in a nearly impossible spot.

"The RJ [shot], you know, I didn’t think was bad," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "We wanted to attack the open floor. He had been getting downhill pretty good. So we thought that would be a good opportunity for him. And then we may have settled for that one. I want to take a look at film.

"Then, with the final one, they did a good job of taking the corner away. There’s three options on that play and Julius ended up with a tough shot there, but credit to their defense."

Barrett had 24 points, Randle added 18 and Nerlens Noel had 13 rebounds for the Knicks (23-25), who fought back from an 86-71 deficit. They shot 11-for-21 from the free-throw line, with Barrett going 5-for-10.

Kevin Love led the Cavaliers (29-19) with 20 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, shooting 6-for-12 from three-point range.

Love drained three three-pointers in a 53-second span to push Cleveland’s lead to double-digits in the third quarter.

Grimes hit a pair of three-pointers in the final minute of the quarter as the Knicks cut a 14-point deficit to 76-69. Dean Wade sank two straight three-pointers as the Cavaliers went ahead 86-71, but Grimes, Barrett and Obi Toppin (13 points, 3-for-4 shooting from outside the arc) sank three-pointers in an 11-0 run that brought the Knicks within 86-82.

Randle tied the score as he muscled in the paint, knocking over Rajon Rondo before slipping a shot around Mobley with 2:28 to play to cap a 20-5 run.

"You’ve got to find a way to win," Thibodeau said. "That’s the bottom line. And so some things you can control like, you could deal with if you’re not shooting the ball well. But floor balance, protecting the basket first, that’s basic. That’s commitment . . . You’ve got to make great effort. You’ve got to fight. You’ve got to hit. You got to go get it done."

This trip was not going to be easy for the Knicks: three games against some of the top teams in the Eastern Conference — Cleveland, Miami and Milwaukee.

After returning home for two games, they face a five-game West Coast trip without an easy mark among them — the Lakers, the Jazz, the Nuggets, Golden State and the Trail Blazers.

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.