Tim Legler stood courtside at Madison Square Garden after the New York Knicks' 109-93 Game 2 victory and delivered the kind of clinical breakdown SportsCenter built his television career on. The Cleveland Cavaliers, he argued, are not losing this Eastern Conference Finals because their stars are absent. They are losing it because the New York Knicks have done two things at once: they have built an elite playoff defence around a healthy half-court offence, and they have a point guard the Cavs cannot solve.
"The Knicks' defence has turned into an elite defence here in the postseason, and they adjusted some things during the course of the year," Legler said. "The efficiency of their offence has helped that defence, because when you're taking the ball out of the net a lot, that's what you're going to get defensively. You can set up, you can see the ball in front of you, and you can execute the game plan and you get the appropriate matchups that you want."
Cleveland came out of the gate firing from three-point range, but the shots dried up. Sam Merrill, in particular, missed a stack of first-half looks Legler thought could have flipped the early arc of the game.
"There's no doubt that the Cleveland Cavaliers' three-point shooting failed them in this game, because that's the shot you're going to have to make if the Knicks are going to be this connected off the dribble in the way they're going to protect the lane. You're going to have to knock down your share of three-point shots and tonight just wasn't Cleveland's night," Legler said.
On the other end, Josh Hart — left open by Cleveland's rotations — punished the choice for a playoff career-high 26 points. Brunson posted 19 points and a Knicks playoff record 14 assists.
"Brunson was ordinary to below-average in terms of his scoring. He had 17 against Atlanta, but that was the game they won by 50 points. He had a career high in the playoffs in assists. If you tell Cleveland and coach Atkinson, 'Hey, he's going to get 19,' they're going to feel good about their chances. He recognised immediately the shift," Legler said.
"And the shift was this. They were going to rotate multiple bodies to his side of the floor. They let him play obviously one-on-one in that fourth quarter of Game 1 late, and I think now the adjustment, he was waiting for it. He was prepared for it. He wasn't as aggressive looking for his offence. He wanted to accept that, because that's the responsibility of a great player, and then move it out of there. Tonight was his job as a playmaker. He picked them apart. He ran the team."
The Cavaliers' team-wide possession count produced just seven turnovers, but the Brunson math kept tilting Cleveland's coverages into 4-on-3s and 3-on-2s.
"A lot of that falls on the shoulders of Jalen Brunson — getting them properly spaced, reading where the traffic was coming from, and then delivering the ball where it was supposed to go to make the game very easy. Four-on-threes and three-on-twos out of those traps," Legler said.
Asked whether Cleveland's 6-1 home record salvages the series math, Legler reframed the problem in stark terms.
"It's a math problem, right? You got to get to four. And for the Cavs, they had a different problem coming in. They had to win a road game. The Knicks don't. And the Cavs had a road win right there in front of them. They weren't able to close the deal," Legler said.
He still believes Donovan Mitchell can carry Cleveland in Cleveland, but he flagged the deeper structural issue.
"They still haven't solved the Jalen Brunson riddle, because he went iso mostly in the fourth quarter and overtime in Game 1, got a win tonight in a lot of traffic, he picks them apart. They haven't figured out that end of the floor. That's the biggest challenge for the Cavs. As well as that, you have to get better shooting out of your role players around the star guards," Legler said.
Game 3 tips Saturday in Cleveland. New York is two wins away from its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.
