The NBA world righted itself Friday. One day after stumbling for the first time in 14 games, the New York Knicks won. And the Cavaliers, as has become so typical this season, lost in another listless outing, falling to the Knicks, 101-91, in front of 19,430 at The Q.
With the victory, the Knicks have won 14 of their past 15 games.
With the loss, the Cavaliers are 2-13 in their past 15 games.
Surprising, it wasn’t.
With the Knicks playing to maintain the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the playoffs, and Carmelo Anthony playing to capture the scoring title, there was little doubt of the outcome from early on. The Knicks used a 13-0 streak in the second quarter — the same quarter in which J.R. Smith scored the first 10 points — to take a commanding lead they would not relinquish.
Both Anthony and Smith finished with 31 points, as did the Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving.
“Both of those guys are just playing great basketball and making shots,” Cavaliers coach Byron Scott said. “J.R. tonight was fantastic at creating space for himself and hitting everything, pretty much, that he shot.”
Smith missed three of his 16 attempts. But he didn’t miss a thing after the first quarter.
Anthony, meanwhile, scored 12 straight points in the third quarter as the Knicks’ advantage blossomed.
“They’re one of the toughest teams in the league,” Irving said. “We were able to contest some shots and they were still making them.”
The Cavaliers struggled to match up with the Knicks’ small and quick lineup, which featured a starting center in Chris Copeland who is 6-feet-8. Cleveland’s 7-foot center Tyler Zeller was 0-for-3 and had just four rebounds as he fought to remind himself not to stray too far from the basket.
“My mind-set had to change and I didn’t really figure it out until the end,” Zeller said.
Irving did his best to keep the Cavaliers in the contest, taking a career-high 27 shots, making 11 for his 31 points.
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