Knicks Crush Cavaliers to Reach NBA Finals for the First Time Since 1999
The New York Knicks led the Cleveland Cavaliers 38-26 at the end of the first quarter of game four of the Eastern Conference Finals before cruising to a 130-93 win to complete a 4-0 Eastern Conference Finals sweep. Six Knicks scored in double figures, with Karl-Anthony Towns leading the way (team-high 19 points, game-high 14 rebounds). OG Anunoby scored 17 points, Landry Shamet added 16 points off of the bench, and Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges each had 15 points and five assists. Miles "Deuce" McBride chipped in 11 points in a reserve role, and Josh Hart had another solid all-around game (six points, 11 rebounds, six assists). The outcome was decided early due to a combination of New York's great play and the Cavaliers blatantly quitting; as a result, Brunson, Bridges, and Hart did not play in the fourth quarter.
In short, if the occasion had called for it, Brunson could have easily scored 30 points, and his teammates could have added to their statistics as well--which is yet another example of how foolish it is to evaluate players based solely on numbers without looking at the larger context. Kenny Smith calls a player who pads his numbers on a bad team a "looter in a riot," because even a bad team will likely have a 20 ppg scorer just because of the nature of the NBA game (and the use of the shot clock). One cannot (or should not) assume that individual numbers compiled in one context can also be compiled in a different context. The Dallas Mavericks have long bragged about being in the forefront of the so-called "analytics" revolution, but it is not clear if "analytics" took the Mavericks to the top or dragged them down from the top. In 2011, Dirk Nowitzki carried the Mavericks to their lone NBA title, but the Mavericks promptly broke up his supporting cast and then more than a decade later they made two very questionable major personnel decisions; the Lakers appreciate the gift of Luka Doncic, and the Knicks very much appreciate the gift of Jalen Brunson.
Brunson averaged 25.5 ppg and 7.8 apg while shooting .487 from the field in the Eastern Conference Finals en route to capturing the 2026 Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP; previous honorees include Jayson Tatum (2022), Jimmy Butler (2023), Jaylen Brown (2024), and Pascal Siakam (2025).
Coach Mike Brown, who has received much unwarranted criticism from uninformed media members, deserves a lot of credit for lifting an already very good team to the next level by not only implementing productive changes at both ends of the court but also by instilling a group feeling of camaraderie--but chemistry cannot be quantified, so the "stat gurus" refuse to believe that it matters or even exists.
In my NBA Finals Preview, I will further discuss the Knicks' remarkable 2026 playoff run--which now includes a record three elimination game wins by at least 20 points each--but a lot needs to be said about the Cleveland Cavaliers, a fully healthy team with the league's highest payroll that overtly quit versus the Knicks; the Knicks deserve full credit for how well they are playing, but when a team repeatedly fails to get back on defense and repeatedly fails to make basic defensive rotations in the half court that team has quit, and that is what we saw from the Cavaliers at the end of game three and then carrying over into game four.
In game four, Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 31 points on 9-18 field goal shooting, but that was not nearly enough to even keep the game close--and several of his highly touted teammates were conspicuous in their absence. No, Evan Mobley (15 points, seven rebounds, four assists, no blocked shots) is not the next Tim Duncan. No, Jarrett Allen (six points, three rebounds)--who played well in Cleveland's two game seven wins earlier in this year's playoffs--is not dependable enough. Mitchell was the only main Cleveland player who met reasonable performance expectations in the Eastern Conference Finals, averaging 27.3 ppg on .475 field goal shooting, albeit with shaky floor game numbers (2.3 apg, 3.5 tpg).
Then, of course, there is the ongoing playoff saga of James Harden--and don't fall for the propaganda that he is getting old: he played fine during this regular season, and he has been falling apart during the playoffs throughout his career. His elimination game record since fleeing Oklahoma City in 2012 is now 5-14, and he played poorly in most of those games. Recent examples include scoring 11 points on 4-9 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 99-90 loss to Miami in 2022, scoring nine points on 3-11 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 112-88 loss to Boston in 2023, scoring 16 points on 5-16 field goal shooting in the L.A. Clippers' 114-101 loss to Dallas in 2024, and scoring seven points on 2-8 field goal shooting in the Clippers' 120-101 game seven loss to the Denver Nuggets in 2025
After the Cavaliers traded Darius Garland for Harden, I declared, "I can write the template for the Cavaliers' 2026 elimination game loss now, and after the game I can fill in the blanks around the words "James Harden disappeared" and "James Harden scored just xxx second half points." As I predicted, James Harden disappeared, and James Harden scored just zero second half points on 0-3 field goal shooting, finally reaching a nadir that not even he can surpass and adding yet another pathetic line to his horrific elimination game resume.
The Cavaliers acquired Harden to be the difference, and he was, because the Cavaliers have taken on his playoff identity: shoot bad shots at a low percentage (.416 field goal percentage in game four, .426 field goal percentage in the four games overall), make careless turnovers, don't hustle back on defense, and then quit in an elimination game. Harden and the Cavaliers checked off every one of those boxes. Harden provided yet another playoff game with a "concert tour" field goal percentage (2-8 for a chilly February outing), a "Harden" (a game with more turnovers than field goals made--here, a game-high five turnovers versus just two field goals made), and lackadaisical defense. As Shaquille O'Neal said at halftime, "James is doing what he usually does--disappear." Harden finished with 12 points, four assists, and five turnovers. He shot 0-6 from beyond the arc, and if the Knicks had not charitably fouled him (why foul a guy who can't make a shot?) to give him eight free points then he would not have even reached double figures in scoring. In the Eastern Conference Finals, Harden averaged 16.0 ppg on .389 field goal shooting (including .179 from three point range) with 3.0 apg and 4.3 tpg. It is difficult to win when your floor general with a supposedly genius-level basketball IQ can't make a shot, has more turnovers than assists, and is the opposing team's number one target to attack on defense.
"Stat gurus" love Harden, and they love lavishing outrageously false praise on him. Kirk Goldsberry called Harden "the greatest scorer of this NBA era," a ludicrous notion that I debunked in 2019. Daryl Morey declared that James Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan.
The Cavaliers clearly relied on such delusional thinking when they acquired Harden, and it is evident that delusional thinking pervades the organization. All you need to know about the misapplication of "advanced basketball statistics" can be summarized in this quote from Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson, who declared that "analytically" his Cavaliers won two of the first three games versus the Knicks. In the real world of real numbers, the Cavaliers lost the first three games before quitting in game four, and every game was decided by at least 11 points (the first game went to overtime after the Cavaliers squandered a 22 point fourth quarter lead). Analytically, it would appear that Cleveland's 22 point lead was the outlier in this three game sample size, because otherwise the Knicks outplayed, outcoached, outshot, and outhustled the Cavaliers.
When you are delusional enough to think that you are winning on a spreadsheet despite getting destroyed on the basketball court, you are not smart enough or self-aware enough to make decisions that will lead to winning a championship.
Let's be perfectly clear: it is smart to use statistics with understanding and in the larger context of how basketball is played/should be played--but there are a lot of "stat gurus" who have made a lot of money peddling fish oil as NBA executives and media members without having a clue about how to evaluate players or teams, and those are the people whose faulty thinking I have been refuting for decades.
It is true that the Cavaliers advanced one round farther this year than they did last year, but they did that despite Harden more so than because of him--and the Cavaliers did not assemble the most expensive roster in the league to fall eight wins short of capturing the NBA title. Just like this season was "NBA Finals or bust" for the Knicks, the same was true (or should have been true) for the Cavaliers.
Labels: Cleveland Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson, James Harden, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kenny Atkinson, Mike Brown, New York Knicks
posted by David Friedman @ 12:33 AM
6 Comments:
Great analysis! What is your explanation for "one of the premier 3-point specialists of our time" continuously failing when the games matter most? He shot 37.5% from three in the regular season, but just 29.9% in the playoffs, including performances like 0–6, 1–7, and 1–8 against the Cavs; 0–6, 3–10, 0–4, and 1–7 vs. the Pistons; and 1–5, 1–4, and 3–10 against the Raptors. It’s a shame for a player who spends 90% of his practice time taking nothing but shots from beyond the arc. Greatest scorer ever? Maybe to those ‘experts’ who act like the NBA was founded in 2016.
“The (name a team) have acquired James Harden. Are the (team previously named) now contenders?”
It reminds me of Draymond Green when his behavior was becoming alarmingly violent and you wondered what would have to happen for the league to adequately acknowledge just how physically dangerous he was.
With Harden, you wonder how many playoff disappearing acts will it take before every single team in the league realizes that his addition will never increase their chances of winning a championship and it will actually have the opposite impact.
Harden will probably be in the top five of the scoring list when he retires and people will reminisce about how he was one of the greatest perimeter scorers ever and how creative of a playmaker he was when the reality is that he was a complete fraud who stockpiled points and assists for his own personal benefit and crumbled whenever his team needed him most. His legacy should be a cautionary tale instead of something that is celebrated.
Kenny:
Only Harden can know for sure what is going on in is mind and his body during his playoff collapses, but I have some thoughts:
1) During the regular season, Harden benefits from favorable foul calls, but the game is called differently in the playoffs. Because of the favorable whistle that he receives in the regular season, defenders are more cautious about closing out on Harden's three pointers. Also, Harden is able to get in a shooting rhythm (and pile up points) by getting free throws. The latter does not explain last night, because Harden made eight free throws and still could not find his shot from the field.
2) I don't want to get too deep into speculating about a player's mentality, but let's just say that it is my belief that Harden lacks whatever "clutch gene/clutch mentality" that players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant demonstrated during their careers. That can't be quantified or proven, but if you play sports then you know that some players have "it" and some players don't. Harden obviously has a lot of talent and toughness just to make it to the NBA and last this long in the league, but compared to the best of the best he lacks something.
3) Regarding being the greatest scorer, it is important to understand how fraudulent Harden's regular season numbers are. I am not going to revisit in detail here a topic that I have discussed at length for more than a decade, but Harden's regular season numbers are significantly inflated by uncalled travels and by a favorable whistle that ignores when he pushes off but rescues him when he flops. The past 20 years or so have been favorable for offensive players in general in the NBA, but particularly so for Harden--and then when the game is called closer to the way it should be in the playoffs, we see the real Harden: he is a talented player who can have some big games, but he is not in the same class as the truly great scorers.
Michael:
I don't think that "stat gurus" will ever get it about Harden. They will stubbornly insist that the numbers prove his greatness. The narrative about this series will be some combination of "Harden is old now and this series does not invalidate his prior greatness" and "The Cavaliers did not utilize Harden correctly."
Harden’s brand of basketball is to cut corners. It’s too much work to play off ball and play within a team concept, at 6’5 with a 6’11 wingspan he has the size, strength, length to be an all-time great guard. He doesn’t necessarily have the athleticism but he could make up for that in conditioning and playing off ball which he avoids. It’s tough to build a team around him as a 1st option or 2nd option and he seems unwilling to be the 3rd option even at this stage of his career
I think it simply boils down to how weak the foundation to his game is, the weaker the foundation the more catastrophic the collapse and that’s apparent against playoff teams
Some would argue we’re too harsh on a 36 years old and that would be true if he had an excellent track record in his prime, but his track record in the playoffs has always been bad. No finals trip as the best or 2nd best player, embarrassing moments like the comeback while on the bench or getting blown out to a Spurs team with no Kawhi or Parker, and being part of 27 consecutive missed 3s. The Warriors were stacked and no Chris Paul! Well, the warriors were not as good in 2019 and KD missed the end of that series and Harden still blew it
This is simply who he is
Kevin P:
You are correct that this is who Harden is.
It is fascinating to watch "stat gurus" torture numbers and murder logic to justify their preferred narratives about various players and teams. It does not seem that any playoff choke could be severe enough to end their love affair with Harden, nor would any amount of championship success cause them to change their tune about Kobe Bryant.
As the saying goes, "Don't knock the hustle"--these "stat gurus" figured out how to get their articles and books published, and even how to get NBA front office jobs. Morey proclaimed two decades ago that his methods gave him a distinct advantage over others, and yet his distinct advantage did not generate even one NBA Finals appearance, let alone a championship.
The smart teams--the teams that win championships--use numbers smartly, and use numbers within a larger context of other relevant information that "stat gurus" ignore or fail to understand.
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