It is a long way to spring, but the Cavaliers and the rest of the NBA’s Eastern Conference surely are wondering about the Knicks already.
Specifically, this: How are we going to beat these guys?
It will not be easy, as the Knicks demonstrated on Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in a 126-124 victory over the Cavaliers.
They did so by erasing a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit and by leaning heavily on their bench, particularly Tyler Kolek, Mitchell Robinson and Jordan Clarkson.
“Our bench was fantastic,” coach Mike Brown said. “Our bench basically won the game for us.”
Said Jalen Brunson, who led the Knicks with 34 points, “They’re the reason why we won.”
Kolek had 16 points, nine assists and three rebounds and was plus-24. Robinson had 13 rebounds — eight offensive — in 16:37. Clarkson scored 25 points and shot 5-for-10 from three-point range.
Last season, the Knicks were regarded as a top-heavy team that needed too many minutes and too much production from their starting five.
Now? They can beat opponents in all sorts of ways, and in this case did it against the team that when the season began was considered their biggest obstacle en route to the NBA Finals.
The Knicks (21-9) are 2-0 against Cleveland (17-15), having also won in the teams’ season opener at the Garden, 119-111.
We will not know what this means for several months.
As Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson pointed out before the game, “This isn’t, like, judgment day by any means. We beat this team four times last year. Where did it go? Where did we end up? Right now, Dec. 25, there’s a lot of season left.”
The Cavs won 64 games last regular season and were 4-0 against the Knicks but were upset in the second round of the playoffs by the Pacers, who then knocked out the Knicks in the conference finals.
But all we have to go on for now is what we have seen, and after securing the NBA Cup earlier this month, the Knicks put on a show for a national audience on Christmas Day, the unofficial start of the let’s-pay-attention-now NBA season.
The Knicks have won three Christmas games in a row and four out of five, this time in their biggest comeback victory of the season.
They fell behind 18-3, came back to take a 60-58 lead at halftime after an 18-0 run and fell behind 103-86 with 10:26 remaining. Then they began a surge that featured the rebounding wizardry of Robinson and numerous big plays by Kolek.
Brunson and Kolek totaled 24 points and shot a combined 6-for-7 from three-point range in the Knicks’ 42-point fourth quarter. Robinson had eight rebounds in 4:46 in the quarter.
After the Knicks fell behind 109-97 on Jarrett Allen’s driving layup with 7:03 left, Robinson had four offensive rebounds in a span of 2:15, and the last three of them led to a pair of three-pointers and a long two-pointer that got them within 111-108. Brunson tied it at 113 on a three-pointer with 3:48 left.
The Knicks went ahead 118-117 on a basket by Mikal Bridges off a defensive rebound and assist by Kolek, and Brunson’s three-pointer made it 121-119 Knicks with 1:05 left.
Karl-Anthony Towns’ acrobatic putback of Kolek’s miss made it 123-119. After a driving windmill dunk by Donovan Mitchell, OG Anunoby’s dunk with 12.4 seconds left gave the Knicks a 125-121 lead.
Mitchell’s long three-pointer brought the Cavaliers within one with 2.7 seconds left, Towns made one of two free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining and a 77-foot desperation heave wasn’t close.
One of the most dramatic moments down the stretch was Kolek running down Mitchell and swiping the ball out of his hands when the Cleveland star appeared to be going in for an easy dunk. The play initially was ruled a foul, then overturned.
“Honestly, if he ran and just did a regular layup, I wouldn’t have caught up to him,” Kolek said. “But he wanted to do something, windmill [expletive]. He slowed down. He was trying to do something crazy.”
The Garden crowd loved it, and loved Kolek most of all.
“It’s fun, man,” he said. “Playing in the Garden on Christmas, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
The only thing better is the sort of thing that could come in April, May and perhaps June. The rest of the conference is waiting . . . and worrying.
Notes & quotes: Despite the pain from what appeared to be a right ankle injury, Josh Hart hit two free throws to bring the Knicks within 12 with 7:43 remaining and left the game for good. Brown did not have an update on his status . . . Mitchell had 34 points and Darius Garland added 20 points and 10 assists for Cleveland.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.