New York Knicks @ Cleveland Cavaliers
Saturday, May 23, 2026 at 8:00 PM ET
Rocket Arena, Cleveland, OH | Game ID: 42500303
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
CLE 27 27 28 26 108NYK 37 23 31 30 121
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Knicks move within one win of NBA Finals with 121-108 victory over Cavaliers
CLEVELAND -- — Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, Mikal Bridges added 22 and the New York Knicks moved within one game of their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 with a 121-108 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.
The Knicks can wrap up the Eastern Conference Finals and sweep their second straight series with a win on Monday night. Knicks fans — who were boisterous throughout the night — were chanting “Knicks in four!” as the final seconds of Game 3 ticked away.
New York is the seventh team in NBA history to win at least 10 straight during a postseason run. The last team to do it was the Boston Celtics , who went on a 10-game run on their way to the 2024 title. Cleveland, San Antonio and the Los Angeles Lakers have done it twice.
All but one of the Knicks' wins have been by double digits, with an average margin of victory of 22.5 points.
“We've just have to keep our mind on the task at hand. The game is over and we found a way to win. We have to execute at a high level in Game 4,” said Karl Anthony-Towns, who had 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
OG Anunoby had 21 points as New York led the entire game. The Knicks not only made 55.8% of their shots from the field, they also had 11 3-pointers and were 24 of 27 from the foul line.
Evan Mobley scored 24 points, Donovan Mitchell had 23 points and James Harden added 19 for Cleveland. The Cavaliers were 12 of 41 on 3-pointers and 12 of 19 from the foul line.
Not even an appearance by the superstar couple of Taylor Swift and Cleveland Heights native Travis Kelce could spur the Cavs to beat the Knicks.
“I think their physicality and energy, we couldn’t get to that level to combat it,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They’re on a hell of a run. We haven’t been able to stop the momentum. We had one chance in that first game I thought to stop it, but they haven’t been able to halt their momentum.”
New York led 91-82 at the end of the third quarter but put it out reach in the fourth when Landry Shamet made three 3-pointers in a 99-second span to make it 105-94.
“Our guys were locked in from the beginning of the game and it showed from the first few minutes of the game. We got a lot of great contributions,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “I thought throughout the whole game we did a good job trying to play fast. We don’t want to go against their set defense all the time, so we’ve got to keep trying to play fast. And then our guys did a better job in the second half trying to defend without fouling.”
The Knicks made their first four shots en route to a 9-1 lead less than two minutes into the game. New York was 12 of 17 from the field in the quarter and was up 37-27 after 12 minutes.
Cleveland rallied to tie it at 50-all on a jumper by Harden before the Knicks countered with a 10-1 run. They went into halftime with a 60-54 advantage.
Brunson had six of his 12 points during an 8-1 run midway through the third quarter as the Knicks extended their lead to 83-70 with 3:41 remaining.
“It’s the next-man-up mentality and the guys found me a few times," Shamet said. We knew we were going to get a real good punch from that team, and we weathered their best punches tonight.
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This story has been updated to reflect that Evan Mobley led the Cavaliers with 24 points and James Harden scored 19.
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
CLEDM D. Mitchell
DS D. Schröder
DW D. Wade
EM E. Mobley
JA J. Allen
JH J. Harden
JT J. Tyson
MS M. Strus
SM S. Merrill
SC Schroder
NYKJA J. Alvarado
JB J. Brunson
JH J. Hart
KT K. Towns
LS L. Shamet
MB M. Bridges
MM M. McBride
MR M. Robinson
OA O. Anunoby
CLE/NYK the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur