James Harden’s Defense Was Brutal in Cavs Game 1 Collapse and the Knicks Made Him Pay for All 12 Minutes
The Cleveland Cavaliers handed the New York Knicks a 22-point fourth-quarter lead and let them take it back, and the reason was sitting right on the scouting report. James Harden cannot defend in space, and Jalen Brunson knew it.
New York rolled into Madison Square Garden on Monday night with a clear plan. Get Harden switched onto Brunson. Cook him. Repeat. The Knicks closed regulation on a 30-8 run and won 115-104 in overtime, taking Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals from a team that had no business losing it.
Knicks head coach Mike Brown was not even pretending after the game. “It was no secret we were attacking Harden,” Brown told reporters. Compilations of New York’s comeback ran on social media within minutes, and every single clip was the same. Brunson dribbling. Harden defending. Brunson getting wherever he wanted.
Brunson scored 17 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. That is the entire ballgame.
The Cavs had answers and refused to use them. They had timeouts. They had bigger defenders. They had a Donovan Mitchell who could have been schemed onto Brunson at the very least to break the rhythm. Instead Cleveland just kept running the same matchup back, watching the same play unfold, and hoping the Knicks would miss.
The Knicks did not miss.
Harden was just as bad on the other end. He finished the fourth quarter and overtime with six points on 1-of-7 shooting. Mitchell was not much better with three points on 1-of-6. The two of them combined for nine points in the final 17 minutes. Landry Shamet, off the bench, also scored nine in that stretch.
If you are a Cavs fan, that is the part that should hurt the most. You can live with Harden getting hunted defensively. That has been his book since he was traded to Cleveland. What you cannot live with is the bailout option also disappearing. Mitchell has to make Cleveland pay when teams gamble on Harden, and he was a non-factor down the stretch.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson did his star no favors. One timeout during a 30-8 run is coaching malpractice in a conference finals game. Either you stop the bleeding or you get to ask postgame questions about why you let your team bleed out.
This is the version of Harden the Cavaliers signed up for and the version the Knicks pre-scouted. He can still flick passes and create good shots. He can still hit the stepback. He cannot survive a five-game stretch where the other team’s All-NBA point guard turns him into the entire game plan.
The Cavs better find an answer before Wednesday. Brunson will run the same play 47 times in Game 2 until somebody on Cleveland’s bench shows him a different look. New York is up 1-0 in a series most national pundits had Cleveland winning in six.
The Knicks did not just steal home court. They told the Cavaliers exactly how this series is going to be played. Hide Harden, or lose.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
