Cavaliers are seeing what they’re missing thanks to Josh Hart and the Knicks

Through four games, New York has been the squad that has been the most connected and coherent.

An excellent scorer can be attacked on the opposite end while you try to take the ball away from them and demonstrate various coverages. Josh Hart is a role player that can play a variety of roles, thus game planning can be challenging.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff of the Cleveland Cavaliers remarked on Sunday morning at Madison Square Garden, just before his team’s first-round afternoon game against the New York Knicks, “I think what he does at an elite level is he impacts winning.”

Bickerstaff noted that Hart has a knack of figuring out how to support his team: “Some nights it’s taking charges, some nights it’s making shots.” The Cavaliers must “understand where he hurts you most” and take appropriate action: Put a body on him to prevent offensive rebounds; handle the ball; and return to the play in transition since he always tries to push the ball.

A guy like Hart can bring his intangibles to the table regardless of who is in charge, but Bickerstaff wished for his side to “keep him out of the stat sheet” in Game 4.

That didn’t take place. In 39 minutes, Hart finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals, and his influence was felt throughout Donovan Mitchell’s 5-for-18 performance. He picked up a defensive rebound about the midpoint of the fourth quarter, ran coast to coast, and finished ahead of Jarrett Allen. He saved a chaotic possession a few minutes later by making a turnaround flip shot just as the shot clock ran out.He then seized an offensive board and discovered Jalen Brunson unguarded for a 3-pointer.

What is there to say about Josh Hart? After the 102-93 victory, New York’s coach Tom Thibodeau made a statement. One difficult play follows another, once more. Large shot, huge offensive rebound, and outstanding defense. The person is clearly a winner.

Hart, who the Knicks acquired in a February deal with Portland, is not the reason why New York is up 3-1 in the series. Imagine, however, if the Cavaliers had acquired him through a trade.

In each of Cleveland’s three losses, the team’s offensive rating has been 102.1, 84.0, and 103.3 points per 100 possessions on Sunday. This means that overall, the team has been substantially less effective in this series than any other team was during the regular season. Following a loss in Game 3 where the Cavaliers scored fewer than 80 points for the first time this season, Bickerstaff emphasized the value of ball movement and going to the opposing side. Cleveland stalled out much too frequently in Game 4.

Mitchell took full responsibility for the mistake, and he has a right to, since he hammered the ball, slowed down the offense’s start, and pushed for difficult shots. He is capable of making contested pull-ups while off-balance and stepback threes, but a balanced shot diet cannot include too many of them.

The four-time All-Star should play more similarly to Darius Garland. Garland was pressuring the defense to move, making snap judgments, and urging his team toward a quicker halfcourt tempo as the Cavaliers embarked on an 18-7 run to grab the lead early in the third quarter. Garland and Mitchell aren’t, though, working in a favorable offensive situation. Cleveland’s spacing is compromised for a large portion of every game when both Allen and Evan Mobley are on the court, and the Knicks aren’t overly concerned with their wings setting up in the paint.

Limiting Mitchell was “a full team effort,” according to Hart, who did a great job handling screens and nagging Mitchell one-on-one. Because he is aware of support behind him and the fact that the Cavaliers don’t have shooters spread out around the court, he is able to defend aggressively.

We want to make him see bodies, close lanes, and compel him to take difficult 2s, stepback 3s, and other shots, according to Hart.

Likewise, Cleveland does not want Brunson, who finished with 29 points on 11-for-22 shooting, to grow too accustomed to his success. He has been blitzed and given a lot of defensive attention. The Knicks anticipated this and have done a better job of capitalizing on it than the Cavaliers. Thibodeau claimed that this is the outcome of “everyone being connected together.”

“Everyone has to get to the right spots, and then you gotta make the right play and trust the game, trust your reads,” Thibodeau said. “Stop battling it. To make plays, get off it, then shift it to the back side. And that’s what succeeding in basketball means.

It’s commendable that New York made that commitment. But with lines that are balanced at both ends, winning basketball is simpler to play. Hart and RJ Barrett are dangerous attacking close-outs; the latter scored 26 points on 9-for-18 shooting. Despite their combined 1 for 10 3-point shooting, they were unquestionably a net plus.

Cleveland has two excellent playmakers in the backcourt and two young All-Defense players up front, but as the regular season victories mounted, the uncertainty of who would open and close on the wing in the postseason loomed large. Isaac Okoro was taken off the field by Bickerstaff on Sunday, two days after he was pulled with less than three minutes remaining in Game 3. Caris LeVert replaced him, and Cedi Osman received some playing time, but Okoro ended up playing 17 minutes because he is the Cavs’ best defender against Brunson.

In the first few minutes of the second quarter, Okoro made a few effective drives to the hoop and even made a sweeping hook over Obi Toppin. He shares part of what Hart does when he is at his best. He is a dangerous threat in transition, has excellent rebounding for a 6-foot-5 wing, and will make a couple open 3-pointers on the right night. At this point in his career, he is not what you’d call a connection on offense, and the Knicks simply don’t guard him on the perimeter. The Cavaliers’ roster lacks a dependable two-way wing.

When facing elimination, Cleveland could play faster, move the ball more frequently, and force Mitchell Robinson out of the paint in Game 5. It might also manage to avoid being outmatched on the boards. But regardless of how the remainder of this series plays out, the Knicks own a structural edge: Ever since they added Hart, they’ve had the kind of roster balance that enables a team to be more than the sum of its parts.