CLEVELAND — A journey five years in the making began with trouble for the Wine and Gold.
Despite a comeback in the fourth quarter that had the home crowd ready to explode, the Cavaliers fell to the New York Knicks 101-97 in Game 1 of the teams' first-round NBA playoff series at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Donovan Mitchell led all scorers with 38 points and Jarrett Allen gave Cleveland the lead with 2:12 left, but New York dominated on the glass and got 23 second-chance points to help seal it.
Both teams began the game with early runs, and Jalen Brunson found himself on the bench with a pair of first-quarter fouls. However, the Cavs struggled shooting the ball and got little production from their reserves, and as the fans voiced their frustrations over some controversial calls the Knicks took a 30-24 advantage after 12 minutes.
Those struggles continued into the second, with Mitchell forced to return from rest after Cleveland gave up six consecutive points. Even with Brunson in continued foul trouble and Julius Randle somewhat limited minutes wise, New York led by as many as 12 and gained a 17-5 edge on bench scoring to take a 50-45 lead into intermission.
Forced to rely almost solely on their staring five, the Cavaliers fought back to tie things up midway through the third, but Brunson recovered and helped the Knicks pull away with a 10-point lead in the fourth. Even with Mitchell's heroics and New York shooting only 42% from the field, Cleveland couldn't get a stop late after going back ahead, and a Randle offensive rebound coupled with a pair of Quentin Grimes free throws with four ticks left provided the difference.
Returning to the court after missing the regular season's last five games with injury, Randle had 19 points and 10 boards in 34 minutes, and Brunson scored 27 despite playing only 30. By contrast, Mitchell and Darius Garland combined for only nine minutes of rest.
Overall, the Cavs were out-rebounded 51-38, and the bench was outscored 37-14. Caris LeVert struggled, in particular, with a mere three points on 1 of 7 shooting along with multiple open misses.
Following the game, Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff bemoaned the lack of rebounding and admitted the bench needs a "spark." However, he's certainly not pushing the panic button.
"Our guys are very self-aware," Bickerstaff said of his players. "They've been coachable all year, willing to work at what needs to be corrected."
Mitchell echoed those sentiments.
"This is not the end of the world," the All-Star guard asserted. "They came in here and took one from us, we've got to go and get one right back."
Their home court advantage now gone, the Cavs will welcome the Knicks back to the FieldHouse Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. for Game 2.