CLEVELAND — Brick by brick, the Knicks were dismantled by the Cavs.
An atrocious shooting night ended Tuesday with a 109-94 loss for New York, which folded easily to its fellow Finals contender and left Rocket Arena tied for third in the East.
The third quarter was the breaking point. Or better yet, bricking point. It was horrendous.
The Knicks managed just 11 points in those 12 nasty minutes, shooting a combined (shield your eyes, children) 3-for-24 overall, 1-for-12 from beyond the arc and 4-for-8 from the foul line.
So they entered the fourth quarter down 18 and couldn’t recover, not against a stout Cavaliers defense and without the help of competent shooting.
Mike Brown finally waved the white flag with 2:42 remaining, emptying his bench and sending the starters to the walk of shame.
Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson, Landry Shamet and OG Anunoby combined to miss 42 of their 61 attempts. Bridges was aggressively misfiring at 6-for-17 on the evening.
Brunson was worse at 6 for 19. Karl-Anthony Towns was perfect but only took five shots, furthering the head-scratching trend of alternating strong performances with disappearing acts. Anunoby (five points, 2-for-9 from the field) has struggled since returning from a toe injury.
Brown’s attempt to give an opportunity to Jeremy Sochan was also a miscalculation, with the newcomer appearing utterly lost in his two first-half minutes. Mohamed Diawara got the call in the second half and also tossed up bricks.
It was an all-around dud. The Cavs responded with a balanced but not especially potent attack. They shot just 42.5 percent as a team but it didn’t matter against the Brickerbockers.
The Knicks (37-22) are now even with the Cavs (37-22) and at least 1 ½ games behind the No. 2 Celtics, who played Tuesday night against the Suns.
But the Cavs are surging. They revamped at the trade deadline, acquiring James Harden for the talented but habitually unavailable Darius Garland. They also brought in bench pieces Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis.
It’s all been positive for Cleveland, which has won 13 of 15 after Tuesday’s blowout. Kenny Atkinson just missed out on guiding Harden in Brooklyn before he was unceremoniously dumped by GM Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai. Now he’s excited for the chance in Cleveland.
“His composure, calmness,” Atkinson said. “He’s just got a command of the game. That settles everybody down. It’s huge. He knows where the ball’s got to go. He knows the end of game stuff. Sharp, sharp player.”
The Knicks understood the difficulties of defending Harden and Donovan Mitchell, perhaps the best offensive backcourt in the NBA.
But defending wasn’t the problem Tuesday for the Knicks. It was the bricklaying.
“You know how tough Harden is,” Bridges said. “His ability to create, not just for himself, but for everybody else at really an elite level. They’ve got a tandem with Donovan, how well he’s been playing and everybody else. Can definitely be tough.”