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3 Reasonable expectations for thrilling Knicks-Cavaliers playoff series

By Desmond Novack

Mar 31, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) is defended by New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) during the first half at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 31, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) is defended by New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) during the first half at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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With the Knicks and Cavaliers locking up the fourth and fifth seeds in the Eastern Conference, the two teams are set to face off in the first round of the NBA playoffs, making for one of the more exciting matchups in the league.

This is a series that could very easily go either way for both Cleveland and New York as each team has its own X-Factors that will make things interesting depending on how they play.

Regardless, we may not be able to predict how this series will go in its entirety, but there are definitely things we can expect from both teams. These expectations are quite realistic given the team’s expectations both before and during the postseason.

3 reasonable expectations for Knicks-Cavaliers first-round playoff series

#3: Julius Randle has a slow start coming back from injury

We have hope that Julius Randle won’t have a complete meltdown as he did against the Hawks in 2021. However, it’s realistic to not expect great play out of Randle considering if he plays it would have been well over two weeks since he last played basketball.

The good thing about this is that the Knicks finally have a consistent offensive threat other than Randle in the form of Jalen Brunson to take the load off of Randle. This will help him ease back into the game if he does play so that he will not have such a heavy offensive workload.

In addition, the emergence of players like Quentin Grimes and Immanuel Quickley will do an even further job of helping Randle out. However, if Randle is starting the series off slow, he must know not to force his offense, or else things could get really ugly.

Randle and the Knicks cannot afford another playoff series where he shoots 29.8% from the field. However, this is much more unlikely to happen thanks to all the offensive help Randle now has that wasn’t present in 2021.

Hopefully, this isn’t the case because if both Randle and Brunson come out of the gates firing it could get very difficult for the Cavaliers to catch up offensively.

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