Cavaliers vs – After celebrating a second-round win over the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers face a quick turnaround as the New York Knicks wait nine days for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. Donovan Mitchell and Ken
The celebration in Cleveland lasted only long enough to let the moment land. Then it was back to business—because the Eastern Conference Finals don’t care how good it feels to win.
By the time Game 1 tips at 8 p.m.. ET on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. the New York Knicks will have waited nine days to renew their rivalry with the Cavaliers. who swept past their second-round opponent. the Detroit Pistons.. Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson made the imbalance sound like a real obstacle: “They’re rested. and they’re a juggernaut right now. ” he said.. “That’s what it is.. It’s hard to blow out teams in the playoffs like they’ve been blowing out teams.. Point differential means something in this league.. So, I don’t know, we’ve got to get on the film and look.. I know KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns] is playing great.. Everybody’s like… they’re playing great basketball.. So we’ve got to try to go in there and steal Game 1 somehow.”
Donovan Mitchell is stepping into the series with the same sense of urgency.. He pointed straight to what New York is built on right now—starters who can control possessions. defenders who can erase easy looks. and the kind of depth that keeps pressure on even when rotations churn.. “It obviously starts with Jalen Brunson and KAT, but Mikal [Bridges] and OG [Anunoby] have been phenomenal, Josh Hart.. Look at their bench.. It’s been great,” Mitchell added.. “We know them, obviously, but I think the biggest thing is they’ve been off.. They got a bunch of rest, so we’ve got to be ready to go from the jump, from Game 1.. And yeah, it’s great I get to play at home, but it doesn’t matter.. We’ve got to be locked in and ready to go, and I know we will be.”
Cleveland’s schedule has been far less forgiving.. While the Knicks haven’t played since May 10’s road trouncing of the Philadelphia 76ers. Cleveland has played every other day from April 29 and on.. Sam Merrill described what that shift can do to a team—how a week off can be a relief. or it can be a jolt.. “It’s a grind, no doubt,” Merrill said.. “You never know how teams are gonna react to a week off or whatnot.. I think it’s good for us.. Just keep grinding.”
He also made the practical plan sound immediate: take the recovery seriously. then treat the short window before tipoff like the final step in a long run.. “I think we do a great job of taking care of our bodies and getting recovery on off days.. Obviously, in the playoffs, it’s much more physical, but the pace is slower.. I feel like, at least for me so far, it hasn’t felt quite as difficult.. But we’ve got a quick turnaround here. got to get on a flight right now. do a day of prep and get our bodies right and try and go out and win Game 1.”
This series also comes with a different kind of pressure: both teams say they’re chasing the same ultimate prize. but the rosters—and the stories—look nothing like they did the last time this rivalry mattered on this stage.. Atkinson was part of the Golden State Warriors’ staff in 2023. filling the void left when now-Knicks head coach Mike Brown departed to lead the Sacramento Kings.. The core is recognizable, but the chemistry has been remixed.
The Knicks return with Brunson, Hart, Mitchell Robinson, and Miles McBride.. The Cavaliers have Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Dean Wade, and Sam Merrill back from their lineup.. Outside of those familiar pieces, roster turnover has changed the look of both teams.. Darius Garland. Isaac Okoro. RJ Barrett. and Julius Randle are gone from Cleveland. and New York has leaned on veteran stars like Karl-Anthony Towns and James Harden as the latest chapter starts to write itself.
“It’s basically two completely different teams, but it is kind of full circle,” Merrill said.. “They’re firing on all cylinders right now, so we know it’s gonna be a challenge.. But we just keep getting better, keep growing, keep working through things.. We feel confident about the group that we have. the talent that we have. the coaching that we have. that we’ll be able to give ourselves a real chance here.”
New York holds the season-series edge. winning 2-1 against Cleveland. but the last time these teams played. Cleveland got the better of them with a loss at Rocket Arena.. Last postseason. the Knicks were on the same kind of stage before falling short against the Indiana Pacers—the same Pacers team that shocked the Cavaliers and sent them packing in the second round.
Now, the Cavaliers are aiming to end that cycle on the kind of platform they haven’t reached since 2018, while the Knicks want to pick up where they left off and use familiarity—however altered it may be—to make sure this time is different.
Mitchell framed it as both a shift in feeling and a reset in purpose.. “A breath of fresh air,” he said.. “But we didn’t just come here just to [make this the] goal when we started the season.. Even last year. when we lost to Indiana. we had our goals set on getting to the Finals. and we’re just one step closer.. But, yeah, it’s been almost a decade of running into the same issue, right?. So, for sure, I personally and as a team, we can breathe a little bit.”
He didn’t let it linger. “But in the same token, we can only breathe for about 12 hours and then get right back to it. So it’s a balance. It’s a blessing. God is good. I wouldn’t be here without my teammates, but we’ve got work to do coming up for sure.”
In many ways. New York’s physical. dominant identity is the same one that shook Cleveland three years ago—Robinson controlling the paint. Hart crashing for rebounds. Brunson finding ways to bully his matchups with mid-rangers and scoop shots.. Cleveland has spent this run trying to rewrite the narrative of its own mental and physical edge.
Merrill believes the Cavaliers have earned that confidence the hard way, not through slogans.. “I mean, I’ve never believed in that stuff,” he said.. “I think we’ve definitely grown in areas, there’s no doubt.. That’s what happens when you go through playoff series and wars and disappointments and whatnot.. You have to grow.. But I think our resiliency throughout this run so far has been really important and has really grown.”
He pointed to the moments that could have broken them—Toronto in Game 5. Detroit in the deeper end of the pool—and how they responded anyway.. “Game 5, Toronto, we were down at half.. They have the crazy game-winner Game 6.. We’re down in the first half Game 7.. Down 2-0 in this [Detroit] series, lose a potential clinching game at home.. All that stuff are opportunities to fold, and we have really responded as a group.. It’s not gonna get any easier; we’re obviously playing a great team coming up. so we’re going to have to continue to grow in those areas.”
Mitchell also brushed aside any suggestion that Cleveland is soft—because he’s seen the team’s defensive and rebounding habits mature into something firmer, something more connected. He’s been watching Allen and Mobley grow up close, and he knows what the group understands right now.
Mobley put it in team terms, not individual ones.. “I think we just… we know what it takes,” he said.. “We know what we have to do.. It’s a team effort.. It’s not just on any one person, any big, any small.. It’s a team effort.. When you play as a team. and we rebound. and we play defense and are all on a string and offensively. push the pace and play with force. it’s a great brand of basketball. and we usually come up with wins.”
He added the reminder that this is never guaranteed.. “Not everyone gets to make it this far, so you can’t take it for granted.. You’ve got to know what it takes, and I think everyone in here knows that.. We’ve been through two tough series so far. and we’ve just got to continue to fight through it all and keep this thing going.”
Atkinson has been pushing improvement for most of the season. even going back to when training camp commenced back in September.. He plastered Cleveland’s playoff record on a big board—11-15—and made improvement the mandate.. “I think this was just the next step for us,” Atkinson said.. “I’ve been saying all year, we have a lot to prove, and we still have more to prove.. That’s kind of the next part of it.. But we proved something to ourselves that we could take another step.. So, just looking forward to this challenge, this next challenge for us.”
Asked whether it’s more motivating to conquer that against the Knicks, Mobley answered with the simplest possible focus. “Next step is [to] win another series.”
By Tuesday night, it won’t matter how long either team has waited, or how loudly past meetings are remembered.. Game 1 at Madison Square Garden will be the first real proof—whether Cleveland’s resilience carries through a rare rest period. and whether the Knicks can turn their nine-day wait into control of the opening moment.
Cleveland Cavaliers New York Knicks Donovan Mitchell Kenny Atkinson Eastern Conference Finals Karl-Anthony Towns Jalen Brunson Mikal Bridges OG Anunoby Josh Hart Evan Mobley Jarrett Allen Sam Merrill Miles McBride Mitchell Robinson James Harden
Nine days off is insane… Knicks about to look fresh.
Wait so Cleveland just played and then the Knicks waited 9 days? Sounds like the Knicks got an unfair advantage or something. Also I thought Mitchell was on the Celtics for a minute lol.
I don’t get why people act like point differential automatically wins you games. Like yeah it matters but defense still gets cooked sometimes. If Atkinson says they’re rested, that’s just coach talk. Knicks revenge? more like Cavs just stay consistent and that’s it.
“2023 payback” made me think it was about some beef from 2023 playoffs but it’s 2024? Anyway Madison Square Garden always makes games weird, like home crowd magic or whatever. Also why is it always Madison Square Garden, can’t they play it in Cleveland for once? Lol.