Remember when the Knicks started 0-3, and people thought that the sky was falling? Turns out talks of the team no longer being good were exaggerated after all.
New York has now won six of their last seven games and are now winners of four straight after Tuesday night’s thrashing of a Bucks team that has been maybe even worse than expected. Part of that can and should be attributed to a lighter schedule over the last couple of weeks. The Knicks have played the 1-8 Bulls twice, the 2-8 Nets, and the aforementioned
1-10 Bucks. Of their two quality wins during that stretch, one was against the 7-3 Pistons and the other came against the Cavaliers, the latter perhaps not that great a deal given the interesting season they’ve had and the fact they were playing on the end of a back-to-back.
Up until the Bulls game last week, I would’ve called the Knicks’ season a roller coaster ride. But whatever early-season turbulence and disappointments the Knicks experienced, the Cavaliers might have surpassed it. At 5-6, they are just 1.5 games behind the Knicks. And it’s only been 11 games. But the Cavaliers have lost two in a row, have lost four of five and five of seven.
A lot of it starts with the starting lineup, which is ironic given the ceaseless talks surrounding the Knicks’ very own starters. Coming into Wednesday night, the Cavaliers’ preferred starting lineup of James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Peyton Watson, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen has an abysmal net rating of -18.9 in 84 minutes together. That number is a lot better when one of Mobley, Watson, or Allen is off the court, with the net ratings in those minutes all being positive, suggesting that the talent is there, but the synergy may not be.
There are three players in particular who deserve a closer look. Harden is currently averaging 15.3PPG and 5.7APG both of which are the third and fourth lowest of his career, respectively. He’s currently shooting just 35.5% from three, 37.5% from two, and shooting just 4.8FTA/G. Given how little he provides as a defender, he’s been a tough watch this season, and the numbers back it up. In the 359 minutes with Harden on the floor, the Cavaliers have had a -6.0 net rating. In the 174 minutes with him off the floor, they have a +16.5 net rating. That’s a 22.5-point swing.
He isn’t the only one that has been a disappointment, though. Watson, the Cavaliers’ major off-season trade acquisition, was looked to be the athletic shooting wing with size that could finally lock down the small forward position. Critics of the move were cautious given how much he benefitted from Nikola Jokic’s gravity and passing, but also given his relatively small sample size of being the kind of player the Cavaliers were hoping to get. While it’s unfair to judge Watson on just nine games in a new city and situation, he’s been a subpar player. Watson is currently averaging just 11.4PPG and 4.6RPG while having an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.7:1.8 and is shooting a putrid 21.6% from three and barely hovering above 40% from the field. And like Harden, he’s been a negative when on the floor. The Cavaliers have a -5.2 net rating in the 250 minutes with him on the floor. Some of that may simply be due to the fact that he has to share a large chunk of his minutes with Harden. But it also doesn’t fully explain why the Cavaliers have a +7.1 net rating in the 283 minutes without him or why the starting lineup sans Watson actually has a +30.4 net rating in 23 minutes.
Maybe the most interesting case study, though, is Mobley. His individual stats look fine for the most part. He’s averaging 17.5PPG and 7.5RPG while shooting 55.8% from the field and 50% from three. But the Cavaliers are a -2.4 in his minutes. And even when he shares the floor with Mitchell and Allen, the trio is a -20.5 in 87 minutes. Meanwhile, the duo of Mitchell and Allen without Mobley is a whopping +26.1 in 67 minutes with Mitchell being a +7.0 in his minutes and Allen being a +5.0 in his.
The team can still turn things around. As Knicks fans were told to do after 144 regular season minutes, Cavaliers fans should be reminded to relax because it really is a marathon. But as you can see, there are some very clear holes in this team. Some have pointed to Kenny Atkinson’s inability to fully get this group to gel. I do think there is some validity to that. He’s either not making the requisite changes or his players aren’t listening. And either can be a fireable offense. But he can’t bear all of the blame.
The team has very little depth. And at the end of the day, it comes down to his players simply playing better. Harden can’t shoot this bad if he’s going to give close to zero effort defensively. Watson needs to shoot better. And Mobley, despite putting together a solid campaign statistically, needs to continue becoming much more of an aggressive force both offensively and defensively.
All that being said, the Knicks are in prime position to extend their winning streak to five. They took care of business against the lowly Bucks last night, which allowed their starters to rest. Not a single player played more than 29 minutes, so they should be ready tonight. It can be difficult to beat a team twice in such a short span, but given the Cavaliers’ recent struggles and how well the Knicks have played them as of late, New York should be favored.
When you play a team with expectations, such as the Cavaliers, that has underperformed the way they have, you run the risk of running into a hungry and sometimes even angry team. Cleveland has the talent on paper to beat anybody on any given night. But we saw last Saturday that this team doesn’t have a single player that can defend Jalen Brunson or Karl-Anthony Towns, and they just do not have the depth, especially at the center position, to reliably stay physical with a team like the Knicks.
With New York finally finding their groove and Cleveland slipping, I expect a closer game than the last one, but the Knicks to hold them off, improving to 7-4.
Game Details
Who: New York Knicks (6-4) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (5-6)
Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM ET
Place: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
TV: ESPN
Follow: @ptknicksblog andbsky
