Knicks prepared for Cavaliers to come out swinging
Knicks guard RJ Barrett dribbles by Cavaliers guard Caris LeVert in the first quarter during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Madison Square Garden on April 23. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
CLEVELAND — The Knicks were back in action after a day of rest, working feverishly behind closed doors on the practice court at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and then moving down to the main court for more shooting practice. And when it was over, RJ Barrett sat down just off the court and tried to insist he wasn’t fatigued as the Knicks readied for the final stop on a three-city road trip.
If there is any game that would get the Knicks pumped up early in the season, it is this one — a game in which they know the opposition will be a team with something to prove, the team that the Knicks knocked out in the playoffs last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s not quite a playoff repeat, but the teams will meet for a home-and-home set, with Tuesday’s game here and a rematch in New York on Wednesday.
“I mean, duh,” Barrett said when asked if he thinks the Cavaliers will be coming out with payback on their mind. “It’s fun. It’s a team we were able to beat in the playoffs. I know from my experience when we lost to Atlanta, when we saw them, we were extra-motivated to go and play them. We know what kind of energy they’re going to bring to the game, but we’re excited, too. I think it’s going to be a good two games.”
Like the Knicks, the Cavaliers are 1-2, but they have done it while missing key pieces. Donovan Mitchell sat out Saturday, along with Darius Garland, who has played only one game and did not practice Monday. Jarrett Allen has yet to play this season. But Mitchell is likely to be back in the lineup to face the Knicks, not only the team that knocked him out last season but the team that had nearly brought him back home to New York, where he was raised and his roots remain in place.
Tuesday’s game is a nationally televised rematch of the first-round playoff series in which the Knicks upset the Cavaliers, four games to one, sending a team that had excelled throughout the regular season back to the drawing board. That meant adding Max Strus and Georges Niang to a team built around Mitchell, Garland and a front line of Evan Mobley and Allen.
“I think we knew an area that we needed to improve,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We were able to trick it during the regular season. But what the playoffs does, it exposes teams’ weaknesses and strengths. The way that the Knicks were able to guard us because of that, you know, didn’t allow our best players to be at their best. That’s what a team is about. It’s being put together to surround your best players with people that make them better and give them the space that they need to do what they do best.”
“Whatever we have against the Knicks, I’m in debt to that here,” Strus said. “They did us dirty last year here and we’re going to try to play our game to show that we’re capable of playing with those guys.”
Notes & quotes: The Knicks exercised the fourth-year option on the contract of Quentin Grimes worth $4.3 million. Grimes will be eligible for an extension next summer or will head to restricted free agency the following summer . . . A reporter asked Tristan Thompson if there is any comparison between himself and Josh Hart and he laughed, saying, “Me and Josh Hart similarities? Offensive rebounding? You should’ve used Pat Beverly as a comparison. Me and Josh Hart rebounding-wise? No. That’s like a filet and a sirloin steak. But he is a very good offensive rebounder for a guard, I will say that. But comparing him to a big is like, damn, I guess I’m not rebounding enough.”
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.
