Steve Popper: Knicks too much for Cavs no matter how you analyze it
Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns celebrates after scoring during the first quarter against the Cavaliers on Nov. 7, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. Credit: Getty Images/Jason Miller
The Knicks left no doubt that they were the better team — both on the court and analytically.
It was their first meeting with the Cleveland Cavaliers and their first trip to Rocket Arena since they celebrated a four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference finals on the Cavs’ home court before winning the NBA championship and removing any doubt about just how good they were in their 16-3 postseason run.
And if Saturday night’s game seemed like a continuation of that series, well, that’s a good sign for the Knicks. They dominated the Cavaliers, 109-97, for their third straight victory to improve to 5-4.
It brought back memories of the conference finals, when, with the Knicks up three games to none in the series and Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson seeking something to lift his team, he spoke of the information and statistics he was presented by his staff.
“I think analytically, I think we’ve won the — I said three out of three, we’re two out of three in the expected wins,” Atkinson said as he tried to find a bright spot with his team on the verge of elimination. “I don’t know if you guys follow that — the expected score. We’ve won two out of three.”
It became a meme as Atkinson was skewered, especially after the Knicks faced a team with its back to the wall and destroyed it, winning by 37 points in a game that felt like a coronation.
Atkinson explained his words in the playoffs on Saturday night. “I think when you look back on it and take the context of the question, I’m not sure that was taken into account, which I know is a little bit of a lesson for me,” Atkinson told reporters hours before tip-off. ”You can just take a sound bite, but no one kind of looked at the question, what the context of the question is.
“I would just say there was no coach more complimentary of the Knicks and honest about our performance and how they dominated us, et cetera, et cetera. You live and learn a little bit with those things, but like I said, 99% of my comments were how they dominated us. They were by far the better team.
“I answered the question as it was taken. ‘And you’re 3-0, you’re down 3-0, what hope do you have of even giving your guys?’ We get a lot of information, and I wasn’t lying in that sense. But in no sense was it like, ‘Oh, man, we deserve to be winning.’ Zero, zero, zero thought of that.”
If there was a team that seemed determined to play as if it had something to prove, it would be hard to convince anyone that it wasn’t the Knicks.
Karl-Anthony Towns got them started as he attacked Evan Mobley and Thomas Bryant repeatedly and aggressively, scoring 14 first-quarter points.
With Cleveland up 39-34, Jalen Brunson scored the Knicks’ next 18 points in a span of 4:09 to put them ahead by five. He then fed Landry Shamet for a three-pointer to put the Knicks up 55-47.
The Knicks made the Cavs look old during the playoffs, and months later, they looked even older. On the second night of a back-to-back set for Cleveland, James Harden was a statue defensively and shot 2-for-9. There was a lack of toughness in the paint defending the rim. No different from last season, it seemed as if Donovan Mitchell was left to try to drag the Cavaliers on his shoulders as far as he could.
Mitchell scored 21 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter, but his efforts weren’t nearly enough to counter Towns, who posted his ninth straight double-double to start the season with 29 points and 13 rebounds, and Brunson, who had 31 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
Mikal Bridges shook off his struggles to deliver a clutch bucket, draining a foul-line jumper with 1:35 left and the Knicks’ 19-point lead whittled to eight.
It wasn’t the showcase that the postseason was, and the Cavaliers were without Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill while the Knicks were without Josh Hart for a second straight game.
If the Cavs learned something from that playoff series, the Knicks did, too. They knew they were the better team then and that if they executed and played with the fire they did in the postseason, they would be again.
“I mean, they’re a great team,” Towns said Friday as the Knicks prepped for this rematch. “We saw them in the Eastern Conference finals. Obviously, they have another year under their belt with each other, more experience. And we saw what experience does for teams, especially like us.”
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.
