It’s the Eastern Conference Finals matchup most people expected ahead of the season, but not the one practically anyone predicted going into the playoffs.
The third-seeded Knicks are set to face the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line, beginning with Game 1 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
Both teams face sky-high expectations, with the Knicks operating under a Finals-or-bust mandate and the Cavs having pushed their chips in with a win-now trade for James Harden.
Here’s everything you need to know:
REST VS. RUST
When Game 1 tips off, the Knicks will be running on nine days of rest.
That’s the result of the Knicks cruising past the Philadelphia 76ers in a low-stress, second-round sweep, which they wrapped up on May 10.
All of that time off was to the benefit of OG Anunoby, who missed Games 3 and 4 in Philly with a right hamstring strain but was practicing fully by the end of last week.
The Knicks are riding a seven-game winning streak, with all but one of those victories coming by at least 14 points.
“They’re rested and they’re a juggernaut right now,” Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “It’s hard to blow out teams in the playoffs like they’ve been blowing out teams. Point differential means something in this league.”
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, enter the conference finals after a hard-fought second-round series against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons, which they ended Sunday night with a 125-94 rout on the road in Game 7.
The Knicks benefited from a similar set-up in the previous round, as they faced little resistance in Game 1 from a beleaguered Sixers team that was only two days removed from a seven-game first-round series.
“They’re playing great basketball,” Atkinson said, “but we’ve got to try to go in there and steal Game 1 somehow.”
HARDEN TRADE
The Cavs entered the season with the same core that won 64 games last year, which is why so many prognosticators envisioned them and the Knicks as the class of the Eastern Conference.
That’s not quite how it played out, as the Pistons took a massive step and the second-seeded Boston Celtics got Jayson Tatum back from an Achilles tear earlier than anticipated.
Cleveland, meanwhile, endured an up-and-down start to the season, with All-Star point guard Darius Garland missing considerable time due to injury.
That’s why the Cavaliers traded the 26-year-old Garland for the 36-year-old Harden in February, giving them another go-to scorer and a bigger backcourt mate to pair with Donovan Mitchell.
It’s been an uneven postseason for the 6-5 Harden, who is averaging 20.1 points, 6.2 assists and 4.8 turnovers per game. Harden had a poor shooting night (2-for-10) in Game 7 against the Pistons, but his playmaking proved valuable and he finished as a +31.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
The Knicks went 2-1 against Cleveland in the regular season, but their lone loss came in their only meeting after the Harden trade.
That 109-94 defeat in Cleveland on Feb. 24 served as a bit of a wake-up call for the Knicks, who went on to win their next three games and 16 of their next 22.
Both teams — and particularly the Knicks — look much different now, some three months later.
2023 REMATCH
This is the second playoff series between these teams since 2023, with the Knicks winning their first-round meeting in five games three postseasons ago.
The teams are different, though many of the faces are the same.
Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson remain for the Knicks, while Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are still starters for Cleveland.
The 7-foot Robinson dominated that series, averaging 8.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game behind a hyper-physicality that the 6-9 Allen could not match.
“Even for me, the lights were brighter than expected,” Allen, then 25, famously said after that series defeat.
Allen, now 28, is a superior player these days, as evidenced by his 23 points and seven rebounds in Sunday night’s Game 7.
MATCHING IT UP
The Cavs (119.5 points per game) and Knicks (116.5) were two of the NBA’s top offenses in the regular season, and both teams boast numerous scorers and different ways to combat opposing defenses.
The Knicks have separated themselves to this point in the playoffs, averaging 120.4 points per game to Cleveland’s 110.4, though they have not faced an opponent as stingy as Detroit.
That doesn’t mean this series will be a shootout, however, as the Knicks have ratcheted up their defense in the playoffs with the second-best defensive rating (104.8) of any team, while the Cavs rank just eighth (112.6) in that category among the 16 playoff teams.
The Knicks are forcing 14.3 turnovers and scoring 18.6 points off of turnovers per game in these playoffs — a distinct advantage against a Cleveland team that is averaging 15.5 turnovers per game.
Anunoby and Mikal Bridges figure to be matched up defensively with Harden and Mitchell (25.6 points per game) in some capacity, but the battle of the big men might be the series’ main decider.
The Knicks’ offense has flourished since it began emphasizing Karl-Anthony Towns as a passer.
While Mobley — the reigning NBA Defensive of the Year — should be able to move with Towns better than Atlanta’s undersized frontcourt or a banged-up Joel Embiid could, Towns’ presence from the high post can force the rim-protecting Mobley out of the paint, where he’s at his best.
The Knicks have found success playing Towns and Robinson together in the playoffs, albeit in a limited fashion. But lineups featuring both 7-footers could loom larger against Cleveland’s talented frontcourt, especially given Robinson’s past success against the Cavs.
PAST HISTORY
Knicks head coach Mike Brown spent six seasons in the same role with the Cavaliers, first from 2005-10 and then again in 2013-14.
The Brown-led Cavs went to the NBA Finals in 2007 behind a burgeoning LeBron James, and Brown was the NBA’s Coach of the Year two seasons later, when Cleveland won 66 games.
Although they never won a championship, Cleveland went 305-187 (.620) under Brown.
That’s not the only history in the series.
Atkinson, a native New Yorker, was a Knicks assistant from 2008-12.
Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson spent parts of three seasons with Cleveland from 2017-20, averaging 15.5 points per game.
And Mitchell, long rumored as a Knicks trade target, was born in Westchester County and played high-school basketball in Connecticut. His father is a longtime employee of the Mets.
“My Mets beat the Yankees today,” Mitchell said Sunday at the end of his postgame press conference.
