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.