Cavs-Knicks Series Will Come Down To Cleveland's Ability To Contain This

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to limit the New York Knicks on the glass in Game 2.

Tommy Wild | Apr 17, 2023

Cavs-Knicks Series Will Come Down To Cleveland's Ability To Contain This /

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The Cleveland Cavaliers are very self-aware of what they need to do in Game 2 in order to limit the New York Knicks and have a shot at tying up this series. The first one is two get more from their bench and the second is to limit New York on the boards.

This series could wrap up pretty quickly if the Cavs aren't able to stop the Knicks from grabbing as many rebounds as they did in Game 1. New York outrebounded Cleveland 51-38 on Saturday night in the series opener and exposed Cleveland's lack of size.

Jarrett Allen led the way for the Cavs with 14 boards and Evan Mobley was right behind him with 11. After that, the next Cavaliers was Donovan Mitchell who had five rebounds.

The Knicks on the other hand had five players with five or more rebounds and two players in double figures.

This is an issue especially because Mobley and Allen won't always be on the floor together, allowing the Knicks to take advantage of their size.

New York specifically excelled grabbing rebounds on the offensive end. 17 of their 51 rebounds came at their own end of the floor which turned in 23 big second-chance points for the Knicks. The Cavs simply can't give them more opportunities to score.

J.B. Bickerstaff shares this sentiment and after the loss said,

I mean at the end of the day, you can't give up 17 offensive rebounds. That's one of t"he things that we continued to talk about. We were well aware of what they were capable of. This is a wake-up call and a learning lesson for our guys."

We'll see if this message resonated with the team on Tuesday night when the Cavaliers and Knicks play Game 2 of this first-round matchup.

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