New York Knicks defeat Cleveland Cavaliers despite losing Jalen Brunson: Josh Hart makes the difference

NBA
Monday, 04 March 2024 at 04:17
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First time All-Star Jalen Brunson got injured just 47 seconds into this game, so the deflated New York Knicks relied on Josh Hart’s triple double to lead them to a 107-98 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgagae FieldHouse.
It’s been an unlucky season for the Knicks as they’ve constantly dealt with injuries to their key players. They first lost Mitchell Robinson to an ankle injury on December 8th and then lost Julius Randle a month later to a shoulder injury. OG Anunoby has missed time because of an elbow injury and now Jalen Brunson got diagnosed with a left knee contusion.
Despite these unfortunate events, New York has relied on its depth. Tonight, it was Josh Hart who stepped up, as he recorded 13 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Donte DiVincenzo scored a team high 28 points with 6 made threes while Bojan Bogdanovic had 20 points off the bench. Miles McBride played all the minutes following the Brunson injury and he ended with 16 points.
For the Cavs, they were without All-Star Donovan Mitchell for a second straight game. Evan Mobley recorded a double-double, finishing with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Darius Garland had 19 points with 5 triples while Jarrett Allen scored 18 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Isaac Okoro started in place of Spida and he had 17 points, while Sam Merrill scored a team high 21 points off the bench.
This win improves the Knicks to 36-25, keeping them at 4th in the Eastern Conference. They are only 1.5 games away from falling into the play-in race, so this win was huge for them. They are struggling as of late, going 3-7 over their last 10 games but they will look to build off this victory on Tuesday against the Atlanta Hawks.
Meanwhile, this loss drops Cleveland to 39-21 and they fall to 3rd in the East. It’s a tight race for the 2nd seed between them and the Bucks, so losing this game hurts as they would like to host a playoff series for both the 1st and 2nd round. The Cavs are 5-5 over their last 10 games and will look to bounce back on Tuesday against the Boston Celtics.