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NEW YORK — James Harden scored a season-high 32 points, and his 3-pointer with 4:22 left broke a 101-101 tie as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New York Knicks 115-107 on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Harden, who came in averaging 15.3 points, needed just 14 shots, going 5-for-7 from three and 9-for-11 at the line. It was Cleveland’s first game at the Garden since the Knicks swept the Cavaliers in last season’s Eastern Conference finals on their way to the title, and the win evened the Cavaliers at 6-6 two nights after a 124-112 loss at Charlotte.
Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said nothing changed in how Cleveland used Harden during his slow start. “Numbers just hadn’t been there. You know, there was nothing we did tactically or changed anything,” Atkinson said, before pointing to the stage. “He’s a superstar, global superstar.” Harden shares the opponent scoring record at the Garden, 61 points, with Kobe Bryant.
That does not mean Cleveland needs 32 from him every night. “We don’t need that every night,” Atkinson said, calling Harden the team’s “super IQ genius that knows how to make the right play over and over and over.”
Harden talked about the slow start in an on-court interview on ESPN. “Being aggressive, you know, I put the work in, so it’s only a matter of time before, you know, I get in rhythm,” he said. “So eventually, it’ll come around.”
Knicks Keep Answering
Cleveland led by 12 in the first quarter and spent the rest of the night holding off New York. Harden scored 13 in the second quarter without missing from the field as the Cavaliers took a 59-53 lead into halftime, but the Knicks tied it in the third and then erased a 10-point deficit in the fourth. Josh Hart’s back-to-back layups and two OG Anunoby free throws made it 101-101 with 5:09 left.
Atkinson credited “the grit and the extra effort and the multiple effort plays” for how Cleveland kept responding. Harden’s go-ahead 3 came 47 seconds after the tie, and the Cavaliers did not trail again.
Cleveland Closes With Two Bigs
Atkinson finished the game with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley on the floor together, alongside Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and Peyton Watson. “I think, yeah, it was a feel, and I think Jarrett was playing so great,” Atkinson said. The staff debated adding another ball handler, he said, but kept Allen in. “And plus, we were playing with the lead, so you know we’re better defensively.”
Allen scored 7 of his 11 points in the fourth, including a driving dunk for a 110-103 lead with 1:41 left and a run-out dunk after Watson chased down a Miles McBride layup in the final minute. He finished with 14 rebounds. “You know it’s nice to have him back, right? He was out a little bit,” Atkinson said, adding that a healthy Allen “changes everything for us.”
Watson had 4 of Cleveland’s 9 blocks, and Atkinson said it might be the first team he has been on where a player blocked three jump shots in a game. Watson’s job, Atkinson said, is to “be a defensive disruptor. That’s what he did tonight.”
Brunson Says He Was Slow To Adjust
The Knicks blitzed Mitchell late, and Atkinson said he “made the right play every time.” Mitchell finished with 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.
“They came out and kind of got right to what they wanted to get to out of the traps a few times,” Knicks guard Landry Shamet said. “So that’s just good basketball on that end.”
Jalen Brunson scored 27 for New York but never got to the free-throw line, and he said Cleveland’s defense took him a while to read.
“Just the way they were playing, I had to read them, and it took me a second to read. And I got to give them a lot of credit, something I’ll be a little bit more prepared for,” Brunson said. “I just didn’t adjust in game as fast as I wanted to. I mean, I was still able to make plays, but not enough to win.”
Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists for his 11th straight double-double to open the season, and McBride scored 19 off the bench. The Knicks shot 49.4% and made all 11 of their free throws but fell to 6-5 as their four-game winning streak ended. Tyrese Proctor added 15 points off the bench for Cleveland, and Meleek Thomas scored 14.
Even after the win, Atkinson said Cleveland is “still clunky offensively,” with new players in the lineup and a new rotation. “It doesn’t look pretty all the time,” he said. Sam Merrill, who is averaging 7.7 points, was inactive with what the official scorer’s report listed as right elbow injury management.
Cleveland visits the Miami Heat on Friday at 7 p.m. CT before hosting the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, while New York plays at Indiana on Friday at 6 p.m. CT.
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