The New York Knicks pulled off the biggest upset of this very young NBA season by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 95-90. In their own season opener Wednesday night, the Knicks put up an abysmal performance against the Chicago Bulls. Thursday night the Knicks came to play and spoiled Lebron’s homecoming.
The Cavaliers struggled to form any type of team cohesion early in the first half which rippled throughout the entire game. The Knicks ran a mix of the triangle offense and simple isolation basketball, leaning the heaviest on their star, Carmelo Anthony. Anthony had 25 points including a critical bucket late in the fourth over James to put the Knicks ahead by 5, answering a previous Cleveland scoring run. Iman Shumpert pitched in with 12 points while JR Smith had 11 points and 7 assists. The surprise of the Knicks roster was Jason Smith, who got hot in the second quarter, ending the night with 12 points.
In his return to Cleveland, Lebron James went 5-15 with 17 points and 8 turnovers. Kyrie Irving was the highest scoring Cavalier with 22 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds. Kevin Love had 19 points and 14 rebounds. This alters the NBA story for both teams, at least for the week. The Knicks and their fans were preparing for the worst and came out looking like possible contenders, while the Cavaliers started out slow and ended up with more questions than answers.
