Cavaliers fall to Knicks at home to drop two consecutive games

Cleveland Cavaliers suffer second straight loss

The Cleveland Cavaliers falter in the second half to surrender a 130-116 defeat at home to the New York Knicks. Even after two consecutive losses, the Cavs remain in fourth place in the East with a 48-30 record.

Donovan Mitchell remained stellar with 42 points and five assists to lead the Cavaliers’ offensive, but Knicks counterpart Jalen Brunson stole the show with a career-high 48 to tow the fifth-placed New York team to the win in front of a sold-out crowd at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Even without Jarrett Allen (groin) and Isaac Okoro (knee), the home team raced to an early advantage thanks to a massive 23-point outburst from Mitchell in the opening quarter. The Knicks, however, also had a spitfire scorer in Brunson who refused to back down.

The game remained throughout but the visitors managed to pull away in the final quarter after the Cavs appear to lose their edge and finished with only 14 points in that period.

The Cavs need to hold the fort in this home stretch

After successfully clinching their first playoff spot in five years, Cleveland has since lost in their past two outings, dropping a close decision to the Atlanta Hawks on the road before coming home to a deflating loss in the fourth quarter against the Knicks, who are just three games back in the standings.

Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s group will continue to look to solidify their hold of solo fourth place in the Eastern Conference, but the Knicks are back on track with three-straight wins and are threatening to race back and steal playoff advantage late in the season. If the NBA playoffs began today, both teams will face off in the opening round.

Cleveland needs to lock down home-court advantage, especially with nightmares of last year’s late collapse that led the team to crash out after losing both play-in tournament games, an experience this young team has ideally learned from.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will remain at home and are set to host the reeling Indiana Pacers on April 2nd.