CLEVELAND — It’s been a New York minute since the Knicks last went to the NBA Finals.
A perfect May changed all that.
The Knicks are headed to the big dance for the first time since 1999 after they completed a sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals. New York destroyed the “home” Cavs, 130-93, in Game 4 — and it felt like all five boroughs took over Rocket Arena.
Jalen Brunson, MVP for the conference finals, scored 15 points with five assists in the blowout. Karl-Anthony Towns added 19 points and 14 boards on 8-of-11 shooting. OG Anunoby, the lone Knick who has already won a finals with the 2019 Raptors, finished with 17 points.
The Knicks have won 11 in a row and swept both the 76ers and Cavs. They were up by 40 on Cleveland through three games and just about doubled that Sunday night. It was total dominance, no matter what Kenny Atkinson said about the analytics.
The “Let’s Go Knicks” chants were startling, borderline deafening. Knick fan celebrities like Timothée Chalamet, Spike Lee, Tracy Morgan and Fat Joe showed out, even if they were kicked to the second row for violating rules cheering against the Cavs in floor seats.
This is the Knicks’ ninth finals berth — they haven’t won a title since 1973. They’ll once again have ample rest ahead of the next round, getting to put their legs up while the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs bash each other out West.
One of those teams will host Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 3.
Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 31 points. James Harden had a bad series, and in the finale scored 12 points and missed all six of his 3s. Evan Mobley contributed 15 points and seven boards. Cleveland reserve guard Dennis Schröder missed Game 4 with what the Cavs simply called an “illness.” He likely wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
The Cavs’ Rocket Arena is always loud. Some of it is the fans, but the music is cranked up to higher levels and two adults with microphones are allowed to scream into them at all times. But that combination was no match for the thousands of New York fans who flooded the arena, chanting “Let’s Go Knicks” and booing when Harden scored or a foul was called on the Knicks.
Sure, the Knicks shot 50 percent from 3-point range in the first quarter and built a 38-26 lead, but the tone was set just as much by their substantially large traveling fan base. The 20-0 run the Knicks launched near the end of the first quarter that ran into the second and turned this into a total blowout — well, that’s more of a player thing.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert didn’t watch the second half from his courtside seat near the Cavs’ bench. His seat sat vacant while the Knicks stretched their lead to 30.
Maybe he moved up with the Knicks fans, who were having way more fun.
Knicks close out Cavs
All postseason long, Mike Brown has said that the hardest game in the playoffs is the one closing out a series.
Well, he lied.
After closing out the Atlanta Hawks in the first round with a 51-point win and taking down the Philadelphia 76ers with a 30-point victory in a Game 4 sweep, the Knicks guaranteed themselves their first trip to the NBA Finals in 27 years with a victory over the Cavs.
New York’s dominant run has made the franchise feel invincible. The Knicks dropped the first two of three games to the Hawks in the first round and have been on as dominant a postseason run as there has been in NBA history. They go into the NBA Finals having won 11 straight playoff games.
As far as confidence goes, New York has plenty of it going into the sport’s most prestigious stage. They’ll need all the confidence they can get. The Knicks can beat either Oklahoma City or San Antonio, but it won’t be as easy as their path in the Eastern Conference has made it seem.
Neither the Thunder nor the Spurs has anyone in their starting lineup that the Knicks can hunt defensively. The Hawks had CJ McCollum and Jalen Johnson. The 76ers had Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. The Cleveland Cavaliers had Harden and Mitchell.
New York’s potent offense is going to come back to a more realistic ground in the NBA Finals, but it has the defense, just like whichever team it will face next, to make up for the inevitable drop off.
The finals are going to be fun. — James L. Edwards
Knicks going to Towns
Towns took 11 shots; and yet, no one will sit here to complain about his lack of involvement. The Knicks wrecked the Cavaliers because of his, as he and Brown have put it, “sacrifice.” Towns isn’t shooting as much. He continues to score efficiently. His passing is through the roof. And it’s transformed the Knicks offense in the process.
For all the flak Towns gets about not being a malleable enough player, he continues to win. This is his third consecutive conference finals appearance, the first with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the last two with the Knicks. Now, he’s on the way to the NBA Finals for the first time. — Fred Katz
Cavs quit early in Game 4
The final image of the 2025-26 Cleveland Cavaliers will be the team giving up at the end of Game 3 and fans of the New York Knicks storming their arena for an embarrassing Game 4.
Making the conference finals is a noteworthy accomplishment for a franchise that for years couldn’t make it out of the second round, but the Cavs’ performance in this series was disastrous. From blowing a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 1 to Knicks fans overtaking one of the league’s best home-court advantages Monday night and serenading their favorite players while New York built a 29-point lead in the first half, the entire spectacle was jarring to watch.
The Cavs appeared to quit at the end of Game 3 and it didn’t take much to break their spirit in Game 4. Coach Kenny Atkinson had a terrible series and embarrassed himself with his silly “analytically … we’ve won two out of three” nonsense on the eve of Game 4.
Back here in real life, the Cavs were swept and outscored in the four games.
The Cavs ended their season by playing 14 games in 27 days and Atkinson spent most of this series talking about fatigue and how tired his players were. Certainly, it played a role in how lopsided this series was, but that can’t be the excuse.
Something has to change. But what? The Cavs are boxed in by their payroll and previous roster decisions. Nevertheless, the unvarnished truth is the team with the league’s highest payroll quit on their own floor to end their season. — Jason Lloyd
