Alexander Wilson
Cleveland made the bet every defense makes when it wants to load up on Jalen Brunson: leave Josh Hart alone and hope the math holds. On Thursday, Hart grabbed the calculator and smashed it over the Cavaliers’ heads.
The Knicks beat Cleveland 109-93 in Game 2 and took a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals, but the real series wrinkle was Hart punishing the exact shot profile the Cavaliers were willing to live with. He finished with a playoff career-high 26 points, seven assists, and five made threes.
Hart started 0-for-3 from deep, then went 5-for-8 from three the rest of the night. Two of those makes came during the Knicks’ 18-0 third-quarter run, the stretch that flipped the game from tense to controlled.
Hart changed the pressure points
The Cavaliers’ plan made sense on paper. Brunson is the engine, Karl-Anthony Towns pulls size away from the rim, and Mikal Bridges plus OG Anunoby can punish softer matchups. Hart is usually the release valve, not the first name circled on the board.
That changes if he’s shooting with confidence. Cleveland can’t shrink the floor the same way if Hart is stepping into rhythm threes instead of hesitating, and Brunson gets more room to operate when the weak-side defender has to stay honest.
Mike Brown didn’t dress it up after the game. “He’s gotta continue to let it fly,” Brown said, and that’s exactly right. Hart doesn’t need to become a volume scorer every night, but he can’t pass up the shots Cleveland is begging him to take.
Game 3 just got more complicated for Cleveland
The Knicks don’t need Hart to carry them again on Saturday. They need Cleveland to respect the possibility, because that alone changes the way the Cavs defend Brunson’s first action and the second pass out of it.
That’s where this gets fun. Hart is chaotic in the best way when he’s confident. He rebounds like a forward, pushes pace like a guard, and turns loose-ball possessions into emotional gut punches. Add five threes to that mix and the Cavaliers have a real problem.
Cleveland can keep daring him, but after Game 2, it feels more like a risk than a strategy.
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