The Cleveland Cavaliers(9-9) battled the New York Knicks(9-11) for the third and final time this season on Friday night, and for the first time, they traveled to New York to do it. But, the Knicks continued to have success against Cleveland and blew out the Cavaliers 102-81 at MSG to snap a three-game losing streak.
New York has beaten Cleveland for the second time in three games, and won the season series. Knicks rookie Immanuel Quickley was huge off the bench and scored a game-high 25 points, including 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Cavs PG Darius Garland, who led the team with 24 points on Friday night, was not happy with the team’s energy against the Knicks.
“We gotta watch the film from this game, and we have to come in with the attitude, ‘Like, we lost to the Knicks again,'” said Garland, “It’s really unacceptable on our part because we’re supposed to just bring all that energy and bring that force into the game. We just didn’t bring it today”
The Cavs were held to season-low 81 points, and according to Cavs head coach J.B Bickerstaff, they did not share the ball enough to succeed against the Knicks.
“We got to do a much better job of just passing the basketball to the open man,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s a simple thing. It’s a simple adjustment to be made, it’s an easy thing for us to fix.”
Garland added: “There was a lot of one-on-one tonight, including myself.”
Some might view this loss to the Knicks as a setback for Cleveland, while others, including Bickerstaff, believe it’s apart of the process of becoming a team.
“A team is not something that happens overnight,” he said. “Just because you throw a bunch of dudes in the locker room, it doesn’t make them a team, and we’re still working to become that. To have that cohesiveness, to have that trust. to have that understanding of each other in certain situations, and that comes through expErience.
“We gotta have these experiences in order to get to where we want to go. Again, it can be frustrating in the moment for all of us, but I think we need to understand that we have to be patient in order to get where we want to go.”
With such a young team, Cleveland will have moments like they had when they swept a two-game set against the Nets last week and have moments like they had on Friday night against the Knicks. However, as Bickerstaff said, it takes time for a group of players to become a team, and Cleveland still needs that time to become a team.
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