3 Reasonable expectations for thrilling Knicks-Cavaliers playoff series

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.

#2: The Knicks’ bench dominates the Cavaliers

The Cavaliers are an incredible team, there’s no doubt about that. However, when comparing the bench squads between the two teams, it’s rather clear which is the superior one. Cleveland has some solid players off the bench, but when New York’s bench mob gets going they’re arguably one of the best units in the league.

While there is a very real chance the Cavaliers play their starters heavy minutes and we don’t see much of their bench, the Knicks could very well swing a game in their favor based on the elite bench play they get.

Players like Immanuel Quickley and Josh Hart would be starters on a fair amount of other NBA teams. This level of depth is not common and something Tom Thibodeau must take advantage of in this series for the Knicks to win.

The last time the Knicks were in the playoffs their bench did not come close to living up to their expectations aside from Derrick Rose. However, this unit has much more experience and is just better than that of prior seasons.

#1: Donovan Mitchell will dominate the series offensively

Coming fresh off a season in which he averaged an incredibly efficient 28.3 points per game, Donovan Mitchell is looking to make it further in the playoffs than he ever did with the garbage pile that is the Utah Jazz.

While the Knicks certainly do have some elite defenders on their team, we think it’s safe to say they don’t have someone who will confidently slow down a player of Mitchell’s caliber, which could spell disaster for New York.

Mitchell certainly had his share of struggles in his previous playoff series against the Mavericks last season. However, that’s one bad series out of nearly six incredible ones, including one series that included two 50+ point performances back in 2020.

If the Cavaliers get that version of Mitchell, or really any version of him aside from last year, the Knicks may have a lot of trouble coming out of this series with a win, especially with all the offensive help he has on his team.

New York is already going to have their hands full with Mitchell, but when you factor in Darius Garland and what Evan Mobley could potentially do, it doesn’t look pretty for the Knicks.

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