Cavs vs Knicks Final: James Harden's Season-High 32 Breaks His Slump — and Cleveland's Hex — 115-107 at the Garden
James Harden had scored more than 20 points once in 11 games. On Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden he scored 32, hit the 3-pointer that put Cleveland ahead for good with 4:22 left, and ended the Cavaliers' five-game losing streak against the defending-champion Knicks, 115-107.
NEW YORK — The Cleveland Cavaliers finally beat the New York Knicks, and they needed the best night of James Harden's season to do it. Harden scored a season-high 32 points in a 115-107 win at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, Reuters reported, snapping Cleveland's five-game losing streak against New York — a run dating to May's Eastern Conference finals, when the Knicks swept the series on their way to the franchise's first NBA title in 53 years.
The finish was a one-possession game until the last five minutes. New York, which trailed by 12 in the first quarter and led just twice, erased a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit and tied the score for the last time at 101-101 on OG Anunoby's free throws with 5:09 left. After an exchange of misses, Harden sank a 3-pointer with 4:22 remaining, the Cavaliers scored the next six points, and they never led by fewer than five over the final 93 seconds. Peyton Watson's block of a Miles McBride layup started the fastbreak that Jarrett Allen finished with an old-fashioned 3-point play for 113-105 with 29.6 seconds left.
Harden, 37, signed a three-year, $97 million extension in August and had topped 20 points just once in the season's first 11 games. Donovan Mitchell added 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists, Allen recorded an 11-point, 14-rebound double-double, and Tyrese Proctor (15) and Meleek Thomas (14) scored in double figures off the bench as Cleveland won for just the second time in six games this month. For New York, Jalen Brunson scored 27, Karl-Anthony Towns posted his 11th double-double in as many games with 21 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, and McBride had 19 — but the Knicks' four-game winning streak ended and they fell to 6-5 after an 0-3 start.
The Metroplex angle arrives Saturday: Cleveland plays at Miami on Friday, then returns home to face the Dallas Mavericks on Nov. 14. Dallas, which plays at Minnesota on Thursday, gets the version of the Cavaliers that just solved the defending champions at the Garden — with a suddenly warm Harden at the center of the scouting report.
