Jalen Brunson scored 30 points and added six assists in 41 minutes, Mikal Bridges shot 11-of-15 from the field, and the New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 121-108 inside Rocket Arena on Saturday to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. No team in NBA history has come back from down 3-0, and on the evidence of Game 3 the Knicks are not about to become the first team to lose one.
Cleveland's defensive performance drew the sharpest reaction. Speaking on SportsCenter, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith — who had used the words 'alarmed and flabbergasted' after Game 2 — reached for something harsher when asked to describe Game 3.
"Pathetic. Very, very pathetic," Smith said. "Gave up 37 points in the first quarter. Didn't come out with any degree of urgency whatsoever. I wouldn't be surprised if we did an investigation and we discovered that half the team had already made vacation reservations. I mean, it just looked that way. They were devoid of any kind of urgency whatsoever. And the New York Knicks are just playing together."
The Knicks led 37-22 after a single quarter, 60-54 at the half, and never trailed in the second half. Bridges did most of the damage from mid-range. Landry Shamet, who has emerged as the bench piece nobody expected, drilled four of five from three for 14 points, with 11 of them in a back-breaking fourth-quarter run. OG Anunoby is now shooting 59 percent from the field and 51 percent from three this postseason.
In the tunnel after the buzzer, ESPN insider Brian Windhorst said the Knicks players walked off looking like they had not yet realised what they had done.
"They're going to the finals," Windhorst said. "Okay, no one's ever blown a 3-0 lead. They're playing great. They're going to the finals for the first time in all these guys' adult lifetimes, and they are totally business as usual. It was very impressive."
Windhorst's read on Cleveland was a lot less generous. "There's a scenario in which the Knicks would play at a certain level and the Cavs would play at a certain level that they could compete with the Knicks, but this level isn't it," he said. "They are just not good enough defensively to bail themselves out with the way their offensive level is right now. This is a team that thrives on good outside shooting. They have been under 30 percent basically for the series."
For the Knicks, the messaging from the locker room was deliberately flat. Brunson, asked what 10 straight wins felt like, refused to bite. "Our mindset hasn't changed," he said. "We're trying to get better every single day. We're trying to learn even from wins. There's a lot that we can get better at. There's a lot we can control — a lot of mental errors that we need to clean up — but we're always just looking for ways to try to get better."
New York is now 10-0 in this postseason when leading at halftime and 55-3 on the season when carrying a lead into the fourth quarter. Stephen A. did not bother hedging on what happens next. "Change has got to be coming in Cleveland," he said. "I'd be shocked if there were a Game 5 at this point. They look like they've already made their reservations for offseason vacation. They just look that way."
Game 4 is in New York on Monday.
