Knicks nine – After a 109-93 Game 2 Eastern Conference finals win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the New York Knicks now own a nine-game playoff winning streak—one that places them among the rare teams to win at least nine straight in a single postseason. The question has sh
There’s a moment in every playoff series when the air changes. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it came during the third quarter of Game 2—when the Knicks simply stopped letting the game breathe.
New York’s 109-93 victory over Cleveland in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals didn’t just extend the run. It turned it into something stranger, louder, harder to ignore. The Knicks are now on a streak of nine playoff wins in a row after last night’s result.
Brunson’s numbers tell part of the story, but the way his game shifted tells the rest. In the first three quarters, Jalen Brunson had nine points on 4-of-12 shooting and 1-of-7 from deep. He also had 11 assists and just one turnover in that stretch. By the end of the game. he finished with 19 points and 14 assists—after getting going in the fourth quarter with 10 points and three more assists.
And then there was Josh Hart.
Hart’s night reads like a swing of momentum you can measure. In the first half. he struggled to hit shots—finishing the first half with 12 points on 5-of-12 from the field and 2-of-7 from deep. But he became the deciding force in the third quarter. scoring 12 points on 4-of-6 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep.
Cleveland tried to make Hart beat them and, in the process, forced him into the kind of spotlight playoff defenses rarely allow. Hart rose to it anyway. He finished with a playoff career high of 26 points on 10-of-21 from the field and 5-of-11 from 3-point range.
The Knicks broke the game open with scoring that came in a tight window. In the third quarter, they outscored the Cavaliers 32-21. That was the turning point New York could build on, and it followed through even as the Cavs demanded answers.
Cleveland, facing a 0-2 series deficit, is used to fighting from behind at this stage. So far. this run has carried history with it: the Cavaliers have won four of the last five games in each of their two previous playoff series. But this Knicks team is different. They haven’t gone against this Knicks version before.
After Game 2, the Cavaliers insisted they just missed shots. Some of that may be true—New York gave Cleveland chances, and the numbers show Cleveland did have looks. Cleveland made 38.8 percent of its shots and was 9-of-35 from downtown (25.9 percent).
The frustrating part for Cleveland isn’t just that the threes weren’t falling. It’s that some of those attempts were the kind you expect to regress upward. A lot of Cleveland’s looks were “pretty good. ” and the team’s season profile still carried confidence: Cleveland had been 13th in the NBA in 3-point percentage and fifth in effective field-goal percentage.
But the postseason hasn’t been as forgiving. Their 3-point accuracy dropped from 36.0 percent to 33.4 percent, and their effective field-goal percentage fell from 56.1 to 53.3 percent.
You could argue you’d expect those shots to show up at home. Yet in the stretch since their season ramped into playoff routine. Cleveland has been playing 16 games in the last month and doesn’t look like it has its legs. They’ve been playing every other day, while the Knicks had nine days off before this series began.
On top of the schedule weight, Cleveland also faced game-flow problems and health concerns that showed up inside the minutes. Evan Mobley had a good first half with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting. but then played nearly 18 minutes in the second half without taking a single shot. Donovan Mitchell, too, looked hobbled on the court.
New York doesn’t have to be perfect when it’s winning. Still, the Knicks can’t treat this series like a victory lap.
Their clear improvement target after Game 2 is rebounding. The Knicks gave up 13 offensive rebounds and allowed 17 second-chance points, and those second looks are the kind that keep teams alive even when the offense is stalling.
There’s also a cleaner pocket of play in the box score that matters for how the series might swing. Both teams combined for 16 turnovers—eight each—meaning this was relatively controlled from a chaos standpoint.
Cleveland’s immediate task is simple to say and harder to execute: take the easy points.
They missed a bunch of open shots in Game 2—and they also missed 10 free throws. In the playoffs, those misses don’t just vanish. They stack.
Game 3 is set for tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
But as the series turns toward home, the bigger shift isn’t just what happens next—it’s what New York’s streak already does to the title picture.
The Knicks’ nine straight wins have put them in historic territory. They’ve become the 13th team in playoff history to win at least nine straight games in a single postseason. and those teams usually come with a high hit rate for actually hoisting the trophy. Seven of the previous 12 teams did just that.
Those teams were:
1982 Lakers, nine straight: Swept first two rounds and then won Game 1 of the finals. 1996 Bulls. nine straight: Won last two games of second round. swept the conference finals and won the first three of the finals against Seattle. 2016 Cavs, 10 straight: Swept the first two rounds and won the first two games of the ECF. Also, we know they won three straight to end the season. 2024 Celtics. 10 straight: Won
last three of the second round. swept the ECF and then won the first three of the finals against Dallas. 2001 Lakers, 11 straight: Swept the first three rounds. Lost Game 1 of the finals and then won four straight against the 76ers. 1999 Spurs. 12 straight: Won the last two games of the first round. then swept round two and the ECF before winning the first two of the finals. 2017 Warriors, 15 straight:
Had a chance to sweep the entire playoffs. They lost Game 4 to Cleveland before closing out Game 5.
The 2021 Suns (nine), 2003 Nets (10), 2012 Spurs (10), 2017 Cavs (10) and 1989 Lakers (11) all won nine straight only to come up short of the championship. All but the 2012 Spurs made the finals, though. That 1989 Lakers team swept the first three rounds before getting swept in the finals.
The way this feels in real time is hard to ignore. The Knicks seem destined to make the finals and need just two wins to pull it off. On the other side of the bracket, they will face either the Thunder or Spurs, depending on what happens in the other conference.
Not every nine-win streak turns into a title. But the Knicks have now put themselves in that rare company where the conversation changes in a hurry—from chasing momentum to surviving the moment you’re supposed to deliver.
And even in the middle of all that basketball pressure. there was one detail that only showed up because the game was being broadcast and watched closely: during last night’s Knicks win. a camera caught Hall of Fame announcer Mike Breen while someone in the background was eating pasta. The post-game chatter about what kind of pasta it was—eggplant parm mentioned by someone on r/NYKnicks—wasn’t about the outcome. But it captured how closely fans were paying attention to everything as the Knicks kept stretching the streak.
For Cleveland, the next stop isn’t about what went viral. It’s about what changes tomorrow night at 8 p.m. ET: whether the missed shots and missed free throws get corrected. whether Mobley’s involvement comes back in the second half. whether Mitchell looks more like himself. and whether the Knicks can protect the possession battle instead of surrendering second chances.
New York has already moved the title conversation forward. Now it has to prove it can hold the line.
Knicks Cavaliers Eastern Conference finals Jalen Brunson Josh Hart Evan Mobley Donovan Mitchell NBA playoffs streak Game 3 title hopes