Brunson, Barrett lead Knicks over Cavs 102-93 for 3-1 lead

NEW YORK(AP) — The New York Knicks have had so few chances to join the NBApostseason party that they might forget the real fun hasn’t evenstarted yet.

“There’snothing to celebrate,” Jalen Brunson said. “There’s nothing to betruly happy about.”

One morewin and that changes.

Brunsonscored 29 points, RJ Barrett had 26 and the Knicks took a 3-1 leadover the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first-round series with a102-93 victory on Sunday.

Josh Hartmoved into the starting lineup and added 19 points and sevenrebounds for the fifth-seeded Knicks, who can reach the secondround for the first time since 2013 with a victory in Cleveland onWednesday. New York would host Game 6, if necessary, on Friday atwhat has been a deafening Madison Square Garden during the last twogames.

“There’snothing like a big game at the Garden,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeausaid.

There mightbe a few more to come, the way his team is defending.

New Yorkforced Cleveland All-Star Donovan Mitchell into one of the worstgames of his postseason career, finishing with just 11 points on5-for-18 shooting. Darius Garland had 23 points and 10 assists forthe Cavs, bouncing back nicely after going 4 for 21 in the Knicks’Game 3 romp. Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert each scored 14points.

“This (is)not over with,” Mitchell said. “The way we lost sucks. We can’thang our heads and ultimately give up. We’re not that type ofgroup. Like I said, we’ll be ready for Game 5.”

Barrett wasonly 6 for 25 in the two games in Cleveland but has beenoutstanding back at home, where fans chanted his name in the secondhalf. He had five straight points to break the Knicks free from a75-all tie, then added another basket before Hart scored to push itto 90-81 midway during a stretch when Cleveland could only managetwo baskets in more than four minutes.

Afterlimiting the Cavs on Friday to 79 points, the lowest total in anNBA game this season, the Knicks led most of the way in this one toreach the verge of the Eastern Conference semifinals for the firsttime since beating Boston in 2013.

They’veonly made it back to the playoffs once since then, falling in fivegames to Atlanta in 2021. But this team is more complete, thankslargely to signing Brunson last summer after he helped Dallas reachthe Western Conference finals, then acquiring Hart from Portlandduring this season.

Startingtogether for the first time since they were college teammates atVillanova, that duo combined for 20 of the Knicks’ 30 points in thefirst quarter, which ended with them leading by seven.

New Yorkpushed it into double digits in the second and Brunson’s 3-pointermidway through the period made it 46-31. The Knicks were ahead54-45.

“During theregular season, we were able to flip some switches and come back ingames,” Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “This time it justdoesn’t present the opportunity to do so.”

But Garlandgot the first two baskets of the third quarter, set up Cleveland’snext three scores, then had the Cavs’ next two field goals to tieit at 59. His three-point play gave Cleveland a 66-63 lead and hehad 11 points and five assists in the period, before Brunson made a3-pointer with 6.2 seconds left that sent the Knicks to the fourthwith a 73-71 edge.

“Jalen hita huge shot at the end of the third to put us up, so that was big,and fourth quarter, just staying tough,” Barrett said. “Every timethey threw a punch, we threw something back.”

TIP-INS

Cavaliers:Evan Mobley had 12 points but fouled out in the fourth quarter. ...Cleveland fell to 7-2 in Game 4s since 2017.

Knicks:Hart started in place of guard Quentin Grimes, who has a bruisedright shoulder. ... Mitchell Robinson had 12 points and 11rebounds. ... All-Star Julius Randle finished with just sevenpoints and two rebounds.