The Cleveland Cavaliers begin their first postseason run in some time when they face off against the New York Knicks Saturday in Game 1. While the Cavs have the home-court advantage and are the higher seed they have struggled against New York for much of the regular season. If it weren’t for the miracle work of Donovan Mitchell, Kevin Love coming to the rescue that day and a rare starting of Dean Wade having the game of his season in an October game matchup, then Cleveland would have had an 0-4 record against the Knicks.
There have been some unwelcomed trends that have popped up between these two teams over the course of the season and if Cleveland wants to win this series, they are going to have to correct some issues. Let’s take a look at three areas that the Cavs will have to change in order to secure a win in Game 1.
No. 1 key to Cavs victory over Knicks: Winning on the boards
The first thing a team has to do to win in basketball is play defense and the first part of defense is securing the rebound after the opponent takes the shot. The Cavs have lost this battle to the Knicks in a big way in their losses to them this season. Cleveland’s big men Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen will need to get bigger and box out better and hold their own down around the rim.
For the four-game regular season series Cleveland was out rebounded 189-156. They never won the battle of the boards in any game. In their last game of the season between these two foes, the Knicks won on the glass 48-33. The Cavs didn’t have Allen suited up for the game and that played into the final results, and Cleveland was without Allen in a contest earlier in the season. That said, the Knicks were an elite rebounding team, including on the offensive glass, this year overall, and Cleveland has to be sharper in containing them there
In this pending matchup, we can see how important it will be to win this battle down low in the paint. Rebounding has a lot to do with effort and if Cleveland doesn’t bring the effort, then this series will be over before it began. I look for Mobley and Allen to rise to the challenge and start winning these wars in the lane.