A deafening silence befell Madison Square Garden. New York’s prize fighter came up hobbling.
Knicks All-Star Jalen Brunson drove to the basket with 4:07 left in the third quarter of Monday’s matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers and appeared to tweak his right knee when landed on the shot.
Brunson immediately hopped up and down on his left leg — a clear indicator that his right leg, indeed, sustained some sort of injury — then hobbled back on defense, and on the following possession, Mikal Bridges took a foul.
Brunson limped off the court and walked straight to the locker room.
The Knicks were up, 72-61, when Brunson left the game and had a third-quarter lead as large as 13 prior to his injury. By end of the period, the Cavaliers cut the Knicks’ lead to just four.
They never looked back, and the Knicks took their second loss of their opening three games in a 110-104 defeat on Monday.
Brunson emerged from the locker room during the fourth quarter break, wearing what appeared to be a heating pad wrapped around his right knee.
He checked back into the game when the Cavaliers tied the game at 78 apiece at the 11:01 mark of the fourth quarter.
By then, the Cavaliers seized all momentum, building off of a standout performance from All-Star guard Darius Garland, the crafty scorer who torched the Knicks for 34 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field and five-of-eight shooting from downtown.
Brunson wasn’t the only player to sustain an injury on Monday.
Knicks forward Josh Hart also took a hard fall in the fourth quarter when Cavs forward Georges Niang wrapped him up in mid-air during a reverse layup attempt under the rim. Hart shook the fall off but the play was reviewed for hostile activity and ultimately deemed a common foul.
And Jericho Sims only played four minutes before he was spotted with a heat wrap worn around his midsection. Instead, 58th overall pick Ariel Hukporti saw extended time on the floor, as the Knickss continue to work through the absence of Precious Achiuwa, who sustained a hamstring injury in the preseason finale.
Monday’s matchup was the third game of an early run through Eastern Conference playoff contenders.
The Knicks lost by 24 in the season-opener in Boston against the Celtics, then beat the Indiana Pacers by 25 at home before their loss to the Cavaliers. They led for all of the second and third quarters before Brunson’s injury — and the star Knicks guard had difficulty catching a scoring rhythm against Cleveland.
Brunson finished with 21 points on 8-of-24 shooting from the field and missed five of his first six shots before going three-of-five in the second quarter. Bridges added 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, OG Anunoby scored 15 points and Josh Hart had 16 points and 13 rebounds in 38 minutes on the floor.
Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds but only took seven shots, unable to find a rhythm amid a foul-plagued night. Towns fouled out in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.
Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson was complimentary of the Knicks’ new-look roster ahead of tipoff on Monday.
“I think they’re championship contenders,” Atkinson said when asked about the team’s offseason additions of Towns and Bridges. “When you add two All-Stars, they’re going to be really good and really tough to beat in the East. Obviously with Jalen, they’ve got a great group. Leon [Rose]’s done a heckuva job. Thibs has done a heckuva job. I expect to have a lot of battles with these guys. I know they’ve owned us…. I think they’re better [than last season], personally.”
For the Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell scored 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field, but the front court combination of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen totaled 32 points and 23 rebounds on the night.
The Eastern Conference playoff gauntlet continues with a four-game road trip beginning in Miami against Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and the Heat on Wednesday. The Knicks will then travel to Detroit, Houston and Atlanta before hosting Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 8.
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