Barbara Barker: Knicks can't let Cavs scare them like this again

Wow. This was exciting. This was fun.

But it also was really scary.

As thrilling as the Knicks' 115-104 overtime win over the Cleveland Cavaliers was Tuesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, it’s not something they should want to repeat.

The Knicks should never have been behind the Cavaliers by 22 points in the fourth quarter. They never should have had to go on a 44-11 run to put this team away. And in the future, they just can’t.

Do they really want to blow their best chance since 1994, when Patrick Ewing was in his prime, to win an NBA title? Because that’s exactly what they put in danger of happening after the sloppy way they opened the series Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

Until the Knicks exploded in the final minutes, it was a shockingly uninspired performance considering that the Knicks had basically been unstoppable since falling behind Atlanta, 2-1, in the first round. In the wake of that second loss, the Knicks had reconfigured their offense and whipped off seven straight playoff wins in which they beat their opponents by a total of 185 points.

In Cleveland, it appears, they have found a challenge more formidable than the Hawks and the Philadelphia 76ers, whom the Knicks swept in the second round. Still, the Knicks cannot continue to mess around for three-and-a-half quarters before relying on incredible heroics to pull things out.

This is dangerous under any circumstances, but it is magnified by what we saw go on Monday night in the Western Conference Finals.

This may be the last year for the next decade that Victor Wembanyama does not win the MVP trophy. After what he did to lead San Antonio to a double overtime victory over Oklahoma City in Game 1 on Monday, he looks to be the dominant player of the next generation.

But he’s only 22 right now and not as battle-tested as the Knicks' veterans. Should San Antonio beat Oklahoma City, the Knicks would have a chance to win that championship that they have been chasing since 1973.

But they can’t wait three quarters to turn it on like they did Tuesday night.

Their second-round sweep of the 76ers earned them a nine-day rest. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, took seven games to beat first the Toronto Raptors and then the Detroit Pistons. Beginning with their April 29 win over Toronto, Cleveland has played a basketball game every other day. That’s 11 games in 21 days.

In the same time period, the Knicks played just five games, ending with nine straight days off. While that rest may have been exactly what the doctor ordered for OG Anunoby, who played his first game Tuesday since injuring his hamstring in Game 2 of the last series, the Knicks did not open the game with the same fire they had shown in their previous seven games.

“It has more to do with having an edge, keeping a competitive edge,” Brown said. “Games obviously help you with that because your body and your mind are constantly on when you are playing games. When they are off, you tend to relax. That is just human nature…That competitive edge – knock on wood – may not be there at the start.”

What wasn’t there for the entire first half was the Knicks' shooting from three-point range. The Knicks were 2-for-19 from beyond the arc. Brunson was 0-for-5 and Josh Hart went 0-for-4 despite being left fairly wide open.

Cleveland, by contrast, took the court looking to prove that they weren’t a sacrificial lamb. Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson gave his team the day off Monday in New York, putting in a little extra time in Tuesday’s shoot-around.

“We know they have a massive rest advantage and we know they’re massively favored in this series,” Atkinson said in his pregame press conference. “But I’d say from our perspective, we’re going to try to halt their momentum. It starts tonight. They’re playing great basketball. So find a way to stall their momentum a little bit. The beginning of this game, the first five, six minutes, are going to be important.

"I don’t feel disrespected. I get it, they’re playing great basketball, they have a massive rest advantage. We get that. So it’s not like I’m mad or anything. I get it. But like I said, we got to find a way to halt their momentum, they have great enthusiasm coming into this series. Gotta find a way.”

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.