Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Cleveland Cavaliers 12/29/2020 7:00 pm [Game #4]

The Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks have been in sync in all the wrong ways the past two seasons.

The two teams are again traveling parallel paths in the early days of the 2020-21 campaign, except this time they're each trying to establish themselves as the NBA's early surprise success story.

The Cavaliers and Knicks look to build upon the momentum generated by routs of Eastern Conference contenders when they meet Tuesday night in Ohio.

Both teams earned resounding home wins Sunday, when the Cavaliers remained perfect with a 118-94 win over the Philadelphia 76ers and the Knicks recorded their first victory of the season by stunning the Milwaukee Bucks, 130-110.

Such performances represent dramatic departures from recent norms for the Cavs and Knicks, who won 36 and 40 games, respectively, the previous two seasons combined -- the lowest and second-lowest totals in the NBA. But such showings are providing evidence of the new cultures being built by head coaches J.B. Bickerstaff and Tom Thibodeau.

Under Bickerstaff -- who replaced John Beilein on Feb. 19 and was signed to a long-term deal on March 10 -- the Cavaliers have built their early surge with an unselfish offense and an aggressive defense. Cleveland leads the NBA with 31.3 assists and 12.7 steals per game after ranking 24th and 25th in those categories last season.

At 3-0, the Cavaliers have a chance to build their first four-game regular season winning streak since a five-game streak from March 28 through April 5, 2018, which came at the end of LeBron James' second stint with his hometown team.

"Credit to these guys for buying in," Bickerstaff said Sunday night. "But when we put this together, we just feel like it's the right way to play the game. It's not something that's unique or special by any means. But it's the way the game should be played -- trying to play the game as purely as you can. And that's what the guys have bought into, playing agenda-less basketball."

Thibodeau, a former Knicks assistant who later directed the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves as head coach, was hired by New York on July 30 to try to reverse the fortunes of a franchise that has lost an NBA-high 999 games since Jan. 1, 2000.

The Knicks led the Indiana Pacers by five points at halftime of Wednesday's season opener and trailed the 76ers by five points Saturday night at the break, but were outscored by a combined 109-75 in the second half of those games.

Those fades made Sunday's finishing kick particularly satisfying for New York, which led 61-45 at the half and opened the lead to as many as 28 before the Bucks emptied the bench early in the fourth quarter.

"I told the guys before the game -- after watching the film, I felt better about how we played in that game (against Philadelphia)," Thibodeau said Sunday. "I can see the growth from the start, and to carry it over against a quality team like Milwaukee -- we played well in the first half and today we carried it over and I thought we played well in the second half."

Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love, who left after nine minutes due to a lingering calf injury, was scheduled to undergo an MRI Monday and has been ruled out for Tuesday. Knicks rookies Obi Toppin (right calf) and Immanuel Quickley (hip) each sat for a second straight game Sunday. Toppin is expected to miss the next 7-10 days, the team announced Monday.

--Field Level Media

(STATS / cbssports.com)

Knits is so awful at point guard. I know we're thin tonight but you have to play him off ball if he's going to give us anything and not be a negative player on the court. Let Payton, Randle, Barrett run our sets

Randle again looks good tonight and playing high efficient basketball. Knits knocks down another 3 "playing off ball"

Is Randle playing himself into NYK franchise cornerstone or mega trade bait?

A tale of two quarters...

I feel like this is what Thibs does. He takes a guy like Randle and he gets him to the next level by playing to his strengths.

Broadway said:

Knits is so awful at point guard. I know we're thin tonight but you have to play him off ball if he's going to give us anything and not be a negative player on the court. Let Payton, Randle, Barrett run our sets

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Half-Time .. Knicks 53 - Cavs 46
The Knicks loss a 17 pt lead having Barrett on the court doing nothing on both sides of the court. Barrett cant defend Sexton, Garland, nor Dotson.
After Nance put-back dunk over Randle it took Randle's heart n courage to be efficient at playing point-forward (Randle has 0 ast playing the point).
Noel & Randle could not match-up to either Drummond or Nance down low in the paint with the Cavs guards flying pass LAZY Barrett to get the Cavs big men into the flow of the game to take the Knicks 16 pt lead to tie the game at 40.

htr10 said:

I feel like this is what Thibs does. He takes a guy like Randle and he gets him to the next level by playing to his strengths.

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Randle played all of the first half (23 min), Randle was tired, and making foolish mistakes 6 min into the 2nd quarter which cost the Knicks its double-digit lead. Plus RJ Barrett (22 min) was useless, it was like the Cavs were playing against 4 players in the Knicks lineup.

Knick turnovers are allowing the Cavs to make this a far closer game than it should be at this point.

The Cavs are 3-0 and if it wasn't for Quickley we probably lose both preseason games to them.

Really encouraging results so far. Defense sparking the offense. Double digit lead in the 4th quarter.

Frank was playing good D on Garland & Sexton. We need him back in.

Gotta keep their composure. The team is playing defense but the offense needs pick up

Kiyaman said:

Frank was playing good D on Garland & Sexton. We need him back in.

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No we don't need him back in, we have the best squad in to close the game

Knicks are 13-21 from the FT line with 23 turnovers.... on the road... but they still lead by ten with 3 minutes left... why?

13-23 from downtown and bc I bet 10 bucks they would lose!

Triple double for Randle

Triple double for Randle.... EP almost with a triple double. Maybe Thibs really is the PG whisperer?

mafra said:

Knicks are 13-21 from the FT line with 23 turnovers.... on the road... but they still lead by ten with 3 minutes left... why?

13-23 from downtown and bc I bet 10 bucks they would lose!

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lol

Team has actually been solid from 3...for real

Knicks are back to 0.500. Held Cleveland to 86 points. Here?s to hoping this is not a fluke.

Randle making my desire to sign him 2yrs ago look good. Is this the real Randle? How long will it last?

Great fu**in' win