Here’s a fun fact for you: when the CBS Sports NBA staff predicted our Eastern Conference champions before the season, only two teams were selected. The New York Knicks, who conveniently enough have home-court advantage in this series, got five votes. The Cleveland Cavaliers got the other three.
Of course, none of us could have predicted the exact path we took to this point. Nobody had a James Harden-for-Darius Garland swap on our bingo cards, and New York’s playoff reinvention almost defies belief. These are not the same teams they were when they entered the season as the obvious conference favorites. It took Cleveland two grueling, seven-game series with Toronto and Detroit just to get here. New York, after engaging in some standard Knicks shenanigans early in the Hawks series, have turned into an absolute buzzsaw, so dominant that they had to wait more than a week after sweeping the 76ers to take the floor again.
Now the prophesied Eastern Conference Finals are at hand. Below are our expert picks for New York’s battle with Cleveland to determine who will represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals and face either the Spurs or the Thunder.
Knicks vs. Cavs predictions: ECF expert picks
Gonzalez: Knicks in 7. The Bing Bong crowd is flying high these days, and the Knicks should be thrilled that they have home-court advantage and don’t have to face the Pistons, who absolutely stomped them in all three regular-season games. But that doesn’t mean this will be easy for New York. The rest vs rust thing is real in this situation. The Knicks have had their feet up for what feels like forever after sweeping the Sixers, which afforded OG Anunoby some time to give his aching hamstring a break. He was a full participant in practice this week and is expected to return for Game 1. That’s huge for New York. But while the Knicks have not been tested much since Game 3 of the first round, the Cavs won two Game 7s and will go into MSG with Donovan Mitchell and both bigs playing at a high level. (TBD, as always, on which James Harden shows up.) Jalen Brunson, KAT and Co. have their work cut out for them in this one.
Herbert: Cavaliers in 6. The Knicks have been on an absolute tear. They have home-court advantage. They have an enormous rest advantage. Almost nobody is going to predict that Cleveland will get this done. I’m doing it, though, largely because of Evan Mobley, who was awesome in the last few games of the Pistons series. I don’t see Karl-Anthony Towns picking the Cavs apart with Mobley on him.
Maloney: Knicks in 6. The Cavaliers have a ton of individual talent, but they’ve been inconsistent all season long, including in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Could they suddenly put everything together for two weeks and win this series? Yes. Do I trust them to against a Knicks team that has been rolling? No. The Knicks have home-court advantage, a significant rest advantage and will be thrilled to have avoided the rough-and-tumble Pistons. It’s hard to see the Cavaliers defending or rebounding well enough to win this series, and the Knicks will advance to the Finals for the first time since 1999.
Quinn: Knicks in 6. Cleveland poses some interesting matchup dilemmas for New York. If CJ McCollum could torch Jalen Brunson one-on-one, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden will likely enjoy the matchup as well. Evan Mobley is about as well-suited to guarding this new, point-center version of Karl-Anthony Towns as anyone in the NBA. But the Knicks have won their last seven playoff games by 185 combined points. They just got nine days to rest — vital for OG Anunoby coming off a hamstring strain — and they’ll have home-court advantage in the series. The last time these teams faced off in the playoffs, Jarrett Allen proclaimed that the lights were brighter than he expected after Mitchell Robinson bludgeoned him and the Cavaliers to death on the offensive glass. The Knicks rebounded over 39% of their own misses in that series. If they come close to that figure again, it’s game over for Cleveland. This version of the Knicks is deeper and more well-rounded. Even if Cleveland pushes them, they’re the better team and should control this series.
Salerno: Knicks in 6. The Knicks are going back to the NBA Finals. All the stars have aligned for this to be the year it happens. The Knicks are coming off a dominating series win over the 76ers, while the Cavs are coming off a grueling seven-game series against Detroit. One factor that favors New York big-time is the rest advantage. The Knicks haven’t played a game since May 10, while Cleveland will only have a few days of rest between series. Donovan Mitchell was awesome in Game 7 vs. Detroit. His postseason has still been a mixed bag. Jalen Brunson will be the best player in this series and carry the Knicks to the NBA Finals. My preseason finals prediction last season was Knicks vs. Thunder, so maybe we get that matchup this year.
