Since the New York Knicks went down by 22 with 7:40 left, they outscored the Cavs 44-11 at the end of regulation and in OT. Mike Brown saw the opportunity to exploit as ‘playoff’ James Harden, who was struggling once again. The head coach’s tactics worked, and Madison Square Garden witnessed a historic win.

“You know, sometimes you got to do what the game dictates,” Brown said to the media about Brunson and the Knicks targeting Harden. ” We were trying to do the same thing with Jalen, and so we said, okay, we feel like we could play that game. We try not to play that game much, but we feel like we have a guy that we can play that game with in Jalen. So, you know, just like we have to try to figure out different ways to guard Harden and Mitchell, they got to figure out different ways to guard Jalen, but we were, there is no secret, we were attacking Harden.”

The Knicks’ 22-point comeback is their largest comeback playoff win in franchise history. They got Harden to switch into 9 isolations in the 4th quarter and OT, which resulted in a whopping 1.9 points per possession in advanced metrics. When New York went on the 44-11 run, Mitchell and Harden were poor with 1-for-10 shooting with 0 assists and 2 turnovers. Mike Brown has seen the tired version of James Harden before.

“When I was with Golden State, we played Houston in the playoffs. We counted James Harden’s dribbles, and you know, we told our guys, ‘hey, he’s dribbling close to a thousand times,'” said Mike Brown. “He’s dribbling almost a thousand times a game, and you know, our high guys, KD, at like 300 or right below 300, keep picking them up full-court, keep making them dribble, because at the end of the series, at the end of the games, it’s gonna wear them down.” On average, the Beard has played more than 37 minutes in the playoffs in 14 games so far. So, the Knicks found their point of attack.

Jalen Brunson thoroughly enjoyed facing the Harden matchup. To begin with, he had a deep 3-pointer to make it 94-89, and a few possessions later, Harden would over-commit on a potential double team on Brunson, leaving Mikal Bridges open to nail a corner 3, which made it 99-96. Moving on, the 11x All-Star was late in switching or just gassed out. He even left Landry Shamet wide open for another 3 to tie the game 99-99.

Jalen Brunson scored 38 points, with 15 of those coming in the 4th quarter. Meanwhile, James Harden struggled with 15 points and shot just 1-for-8 from 3-point range. More bad news for the Cavs was that the Beard finished with more turnovers (6) than made field goals (5) for the 32nd time in his playoff career & the 6th time this postseason.

Mike Brown praised his captain, James Harden escaped criticism

During the stretch where Harden and Mitchell had just three points, JB finished with 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting and 4 assists during that same span. Naturally, his head coach praised the captain for leading the team despite the heavy deficit. “So, great win by our guys, and obviously we don’t get it done if Jalen Bronson doesn’t play like one of the MVP guys in the league.” While the Knicks went on a historic run, the Cavs’ head coach would blame it on luck.

“We got a little unlucky… We played great basketball tonight for three quarters. You know, unfortunate fourth quarter. They dominated us in the fourth quarter,” Kenny Atkinson added. The four starters who played in overtime didn’t register a single point. Not using timeouts even when the Knicks went on an 18-1 run was an error in judgment from the head coach. Not switching James Harden, who was simply being run over every possession, was also another mistake.

Even on Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley revealed his frustration. “I don’t like to get on TV and say people choked, but that was a damn choke job.” Similar frustrating comments from fans and netizens erupted as the Cavaliers had a total meltdown.