{"id":623669,"date":"2026-02-25T09:35:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/623669\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T09:35:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:35:18","slug":"knicks-dismantled-by-cavaliers-as-horrendous-shooting-in-third-allows-game-to-unravel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/623669\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks dismantled by Cavaliers as horrendous shooting in third allows game to unravel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Donovan Mitchell reacting after a dunk in an NBA game, Image 2 shows Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks drives to the basket against Sam Merrill of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Image 3 shows Karl-Anthony Towns dribbles the basketball while being guarded by a Cleveland Cavaliers player during an NBA game<\/p>\n

CLEVELAND \u2014 Brick by brick, the Knicks were dismantled by the Cavs.<\/p>\n

An atrocious shooting night ended Tuesday with a 109-94 loss for the Knicks, who folded easily to their fellow Finals contender and left Rocket Arena tied for third in the East.<\/p>\n

The third quarter was the breaking point. Or better yet, the bricking point. It was horrendous.<\/p>\n

The Knicks managed just 11 points in those 12 nasty minutes, shooting a combined (shield your eyes, children) 3-for-24 overall, 1-for-12 from beyond the arc and 4-for-8 from the foul line.<\/p>\n

It was their lowest-scoring quarter of the season and looked the part.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what we did, we either turned the ball over or we had a tough shot,\u201d coach Mike Brown said after arriving late to his postgame news conference. \u201cSo we made some play calls tonight. But we didn\u2019t generate anything from the calls that we made.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they entered the fourth quarter down 18 and couldn\u2019t recover, not against a stout Cavaliers defense and without the help of competent shooting. Brown finally waved the white flag with 2:42 remaining, emptying his bench and sending the starters on a walk of shame.<\/p>\n

Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson, Landry Shamet and OG Anunoby combined to miss 42 of their 61 attempts. Bridges was aggressively misfiring at 6-for-17 on the evening. Brunson was worse at 6-for-19.<\/p>\n

\"Cleveland<\/p>\n

Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell reacts after dunking in the first half of the Knicks\u2019 109-94 blowout road loss to the Cavaliers on Feb. 24, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns was perfect but only took five shots, with four of those in the first quarter. It furthered KAT\u2019s head-scratching trend of alternating strong performances with disappearing acts. Anunoby (five points, 2-for-9 from the field) has struggled since returning from a toe injury.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s attempt to give an opportunity to Jeremy Sochan was also a miscalculation, with the newcomer appearing utterly lost in his two first-half minutes. Mohamed Diawara got the call in the second half and also tossed up bricks.<\/p>\n

\"Karl-Anthony<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns drives to the basket during the Knicks\u2019 loss to the Cavaliers on Feb. 24, 2026 in Cleveland. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just didn\u2019t play well enough,\u201d Hart said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t execute offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an all-around dud. The Cavs responded with a balanced but not especially potent attack. They shot just 42.5 percent as a team, but it didn\u2019t matter against the Brickerbockers. Mitchell Robinson, who has owned the Cavs frontcourt since the 2023 playoffs, was the lone positive for the Knicks with 15 rebounds, including eight offensive.<\/p>\n

The Knicks (36-22) are now even with the Cavs (36-22) and two games behind the No. 2 Celtics, who beat the Suns on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

But the Cavs are surging. They revamped at the trade deadline, acquiring James Harden for the talented but habitually unavailable Darius Garland. They also brought in bench pieces Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all been positive for Cleveland, which has won 13 of 15 after Tuesday\u2019s blowout. Kenny Atkinson just missed out on guiding Harden in Brooklyn before he was unceremoniously dumped by GM Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai. Now he\u2019s excited for the chance in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis composure, calmness,\u201d Atkinson said of Harden, who scored 20 points Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s just got a command of the game. That settles everybody down. It\u2019s huge. He knows where the ball\u2019s got to go. He knows the end-of-game stuff. Sharp, sharp player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jalen<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson drives past Sam Merrill (5) during the first half of the Knicks\u2019 loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland. Ken Blaze-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Knicks understood the difficulties of defending Harden and Donovan Mitchell, perhaps the best offensive backcourt in the NBA.<\/p>\n

But defending wasn\u2019t the problem Tuesday for the Knicks. It was the bricklaying.<\/p>\n

\u201cUgly game,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Donovan Mitchell reacting after a dunk in an NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,670,136,46,305,791,1024,864,288,560,2724,327,563,3211,304,4988,1260,3357,1247,17348,6,1136,191,3810,3806,741,1166,3596,2149,760],"class_list":{"0":"post-623669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-cavs","11":"tag-celtics","12":"tag-cleveland","13":"tag-darius-garland","14":"tag-dennis-schroder","15":"tag-donovan-mitchell","16":"tag-jalen-brunson","17":"tag-james-harden","18":"tag-jeremy-sochan","19":"tag-josh-hart","20":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","21":"tag-keon-ellis","22":"tag-knicks","23":"tag-landry-shamet","24":"tag-mikal-bridges","25":"tag-mike-brown","26":"tag-mitchell-robinson","27":"tag-mohamed-diawara","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-new-york","30":"tag-new-york-knicks","31":"tag-newyork","32":"tag-newyorkknicks","33":"tag-og-anunoby","34":"tag-sam-merrill","35":"tag-sean-marks","36":"tag-the-cavs","37":"tag-the-knicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116130597731585319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}