Cleveland Cavaliers Show True Dominance Against Knicks

The Cleveland Cavaliers showed how dangerous a team they can be after a dominant win over the New York Knicks on Saturday.

Madison Square Garden, or the alleged “Mecca of basketball,” had yet another team and player come in and show their dominance from start to finish.

No, Michael Jordan nor Kobe Bryant were there for their yearly season-high output. But LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were. Once again, they showed how dominant they can be when they are working as a unit and not as a team of individuals. As usual, James stole the show.

After posting his second triple-double of the season Monday against the Denver Nuggets, he posted his third of the season on Saturday (27-11-10). He’s definitely in “playoff mode” as many have suggested. He even took to Twitter again to give a message to the fans and team.

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However, while we know he is always ready, the rest of the team showed that they are getting to that point.

Although Kyrie Irving sat out the game to rest, the team didn’t seem to miss his production. I’m not saying that the Cavaliers should trade him like some of you might interpret, but the offense was a lot more steady and fluid with Matthew Dellavedova and Mo Williams out there.

Williams pushed the ball and continually tried to find the open man. Dellavedova set the offense and got the ball moving, which led to all of the open three-point shots for Kevin Love, J.R. Smith and Channing Frye.  If  Irving was out there, he would have likely went iso on a few of those possessions–and it would have slowed the offense down.

The Cavaliers shot 45 percent for the game and 41 percent from three-point range (14-for-34). This was surprising since it seemed like they couldn’t miss a shot on numerous possessions. Love had a much better three-point shooting game, going 4-for-9 (44 percent) compared to 0-for-5 on Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets.

He was aggressive going into the post and was a monster on the defensive boards (nine rebounds). Love seems to thrive when he has to take a bigger role in the absence of another of Cleveland’s stars. It could be due to more opportunities or because he knows that he will be relied upon, as he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Even though he had a great game, James stole the show.  Towards the end of the third quarter, James drove to the basket, and managed to dunk on 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis and former Cavalier Lou Amundson. That might be the dunk of the year for him and the NBA. He received a technical foul for staring down Amundson after the dunk, but it was worth it.

James now has 55 career techs.

The Cavaliers allowed the Knicks to get back into the game in the middle of the fourth quarter after having a 24-point lead. They keep allowing teams to hang around instead of  putting them away. The Knicks got the lead down to 10 before Love made a big three-pointer which led to victory. That now makes James 14-12 against Carmelo Anthony in his career.

In my last article, I asked if a loss against the Knicks could possibly set the team back, and thankfully, they proved me wrong.  As I have said numerous times this season, this was a great bounce-back win for the Cavaliers. The “good” Cavaliers showed instead of the “bad” ones today and hopefully it continues.

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They showed how they were the better team against an inferior opponent, but they must learn to closeout games. It is a habit they must correct  before the playoff starts along with a list of other problems.  At least fans can celebrate for one day instead of figuring out who to point their finger at.