The fates of the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers – and especially Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell – have been intertwined with one another since the summer of 2022, when the Knicks signed Brunson and tried trading for Mitchell before he landed with the Cavaliers.
Now the careers of Brunson and Mitchell – and these eras for their teams – will be defined by whomever can lift his squad to a franchise-altering trip to the NBA Finals.
The Knicks and Cavaliers will open the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night, when third-seeded New York hosts fourth-seeded Cleveland.
The Knicks have been off since May 10, when they continued their historic surge through the playoffs by beating the Philadelphia 76ers 144-114 to sweep their best-of-seven second round series.
The Cavaliers will also arrive with plenty of momentum after completing their comeback from a 2-0 series deficit against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons with a 125-94 rout in Sunday night’s Game 7.
The resounding second-round wins place each team at the doorstep of a historic accomplishment.
The Knicks haven’t advanced to the NBA Finals since 1999 and haven’t won it all since 1973. The Cavaliers are in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time without LeBron James since 1992 and have never made the Finals without James on their roster.
Had the summer of 2022 gone a little differently, Brunson and Mitchell might be teaming up to try and get the Knicks to the promised land, But New York, which signed Brunson to a four-year deal as a free agent in July 2022, lost out to the Cavaliers in trade talks for Mitchell, who was shipped to Cleveland by the Utah Jazz in exchange for three players and first-round picks in 2025, 2027 and 2029.
The moves paid immediate dividends for the Knicks and Cavaliers, who, led by Brunson and Mitchell, have advanced to the playoffs in each of the last four seasons.
Brunson ranks 13th in the NBA with 26.3 points per game over the last four seasons, a span in which the Knicks have won six playoff series, including a five-game, first-round triumph over Cleveland in 2023. New York won just one postseason series from 2001 through 2022.
This postseason run has been particularly impressive for the Knicks, who have won seven straight games by an average of 26.4 points per contest since falling behind the Atlanta Hawks two games to one in a first-round series. Four of the victories have been by at least 29 points.
Per the NBA, the Knicks’ average scoring margin over opponents in the first two rounds is 19.4 points, the highest through two rounds since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984.
“That’s what we expect to do,” Knicks guard Miles McBride said. “Obviously this fan base has been wanting this, but we have to stay locked in. Getting to the Eastern Conference finals isn’t the final goal.”
The long layoff allowed Knicks forward OG Anunoby, who averaged 21.4 points per game in New York’s first eight postseason games, to recover from the hamstring injury that sidelined him for the final two games against the 76ers. He is listed as probable and expected to start Tuesday.
Mitchell ranks ninth in the NBA with 26.7 points per game over the last four seasons for the Cavaliers, who have won four playoff series in that stretch. Prior to Mitchell’s arrival, Cleveland had just four James-less playoff series victories in team history.
The path to the conference finals has been a little rockier for the Cavaliers, who needed seven games to eliminate the Toronto Raptors in the first round. Cleveland overcame the 2-0 series deficit to win the next three games against Detroit but missed a chance to close out the Pistons in Game 6 before responding with the lopsided Game 7 win.
The victory Sunday was cathartic for Mitchell and the Cavaliers, who were eliminated in five games in the conference semifinals the previous two seasons by the eventual Eastern champion Boston Pacers and Indiana Pacers.
This is the first berth in the conference finals for Mitchell, who never got beyond the second round in five trips to the playoffs with the Jazz.
“Even last year, when we lost to Indiana, we had our goals set on getting to the Finals – we’re just one step closer,” Mitchell said. “But yeah, it’s been almost a decade of running into the same issue. So for sure, I personally, and as a team, we can breathe a little bit.”
