After an impressive 107-90 victory on Tuesday night in Cleveland to get back into the series, the Cavaliers are at Madison Square Garden tonight, and will attempt to wrestle momentum away from the Knicks. But it certainly won't be easy. Tom Thibodeau and his team are too good to simply fold like lawn chairs, and go away quietly.
I was interested to see how the Cavaliers would respond to getting punched in the mouth in Game 1 thanks to New York's physicality, and they passed that test with flying colors. Now they'll have to deal with another type of adversity: A hostile road crowd in the Playoffs.
20,000+ crazy Knicks fans can certainly make a lot of noise, and it'll be up to Coach JB Bickerstaff, Donovan Mitchell, Cedi Osman and anybody else on the team with postseason experience, to keep the younger guys calm and focused. The Cleveland crowd definitely rattled Jalen Brunson and the rest of the Knicks on Tuesday night. And if the Cavs aren't focused, the crazies at MSG could do the same to them.
I know energy, momentum, and willpower matter in any sport. But the NBA Playoffs are a unique beast, and each of those things do truly matter in deciding the outcome of a Playoff series.
Raising the level of energy you play with does matter. It rubs off on everyone else, elevates everybody's game, and is contagious. Plus, it may enable teams to dig deep for that extra reserve of strength and willpower to get the job done in the fourth quarter or overtime with a huge game on the line. And basketball is certainly a game won or lost thanks to momentum. The way the Cavaliers closed out the first half of Game 2 is proof of that. Momentum just snowballed that night in favor of Cleveland, and the Knicks were never able to recover. It'll be interesting to see which of these teams can seize that kind of momentum tonight.
What do the Cavaliers need to do to grab momentum in this series, and put the pressure squarely back on the Knicks heading into Sunday? Let's take a look at the Keys to Victory!
Garland needs to keep up his momentum
Welcome to the Playoffs, Darius Garland! I knew Garland was a good player, but I did not see his 32-point explosion coming at all. Wow! I don't know if he needs to score 32 or more points tonight, even though it would certainly be nice. But he definitely needs to keep up his aggressiveness. If he can play aggressive, smart and physical like he did in Game 2, along with scoring at least 20 points, that will go a long way to potentially stealing a huge road game in this series!
Stay physical
This is probably the biggest key to me, honestly. X's and O's do matter. But after two games, something tells me that this series will be essentially a six-or seven-game street fight. More often than not, basketball is a game of finesse and ball movement. But sometimes you have physical series like these, with both teams scrapping back and forth.
New York bullied Cleveland in Game 1, and the Cavaliers flipped the script and gave New York a taste of their own medicine in Game 2. Whoever dominates the paint, crashes the boards, and just does a better overall job of imposing their will, likely will gain the inside track to not only victory here, but in the series.
Evan Mobley will need to stay aggressive in the paint as well. He played great Tuesday night, snagging 13 rebounds and scoring 13 points. He might have to have similar or better numbers tonight for Cleveland to come away with this one.
Expect adjustments from New York, and be prepared to counter them
Cleveland made some major adjustments in Game 2. The biggest one of these was benching Isaac Okoro very early in the game in favor of Caris LeVert. I like Okoro as a defender when he's on his game, but he clearly wasn't on it Tuesday night, and JB Bickerstaff wasted no time in going with LeVert, and it paid dividends as he scored 24 points.
It will be very interesting to see what kind of set Tom Thibodeau goes with to start the game, as well as the mental chess match that he'll play with Coach Bickerstaff. You know it's coming. This is Coach Bickerstaff's second playoff team he's coached. The 2016 Houston Rockets were the first, and he lost in the first round that year. The later we get into a series, the more that smart coaching tends to show up.
If Bickerstaff can hold his own against Thibodeau and match him step for step, it will not only give the Cavs big-time momentum going forward, but it will also show that JB Bickerstaff belongs here, can make timely adjustments, and can be counted on to lead a team when it matters the most.
I don't want to say a series is decided after this game. It most certainly is not. But an interesting fact, is that the team who wins Game 3 in an NBA Playoff series, goes on to win the series over 70% of the time, according to NBA.com.
Both teams have seen each other six times now between the regular season and this series. They probably know each other's tendencies by now. Who will come up with an unexpected wrinkle to tip the series decisively in their favor, and steal momentum? Find out tonight starting at 8:30 on ABC!
GO CAVS!
Source: nba.com
Picture Credit: ESPN
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