Knicks Beat Cavaliers 109-97 as Brunson Scores 31

Jalen Brunson scored 31 points on Saturday night and the New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-97 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, in the first meeting between the teams since New York swept Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals last May.

Brunson made 12 of 25 shots, hit three 3-pointers, and added six rebounds and nine assists. It was his third 30-point game of the season, and his first two also came in wins, against the Chicago Bulls.

The second quarter decided it

Cleveland led 27-26 after the first quarter. New York then scored 37 points in the second quarter and held the Cavaliers to 26, taking a 63-53 lead into halftime.

Brunson did most of that damage himself. After a slow start, he scored 18 points in the second quarter, and Cleveland never found an answer for him the rest of the night. Karl-Anthony Towns helped him carry the offense, and the two Knicks stars combined for 60 points. OG Anunoby added 15 points, six rebounds and three 3-pointers.

New York won the third quarter 25-17 as well and led 88-70 going into the fourth. Cleveland won the last quarter 27-21, which only cut the final margin to 12.

Mitchell alone was not enough

Donovan Mitchell scored a season-high 37 points for Cleveland. He scored 18 of the Cavaliers' 22 points in one stretch of the fourth quarter as he tried to pull the game back on his own, but the gap Brunson and Towns had built was too large.

The Cavaliers were playing the second game of a back-to-back. They had beaten LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers at home on Friday night, November 6, and the tired legs showed most in the middle quarters, when New York outscored them 62-43 across the second and third.

Rematch, same result

The game carried extra weight because of what happened in this building in May. New York completed a four-game sweep of Cleveland here to reach the NBA Finals, then beat San Antonio to win the title. The Knicks returned as defending champions and won in the same arena again.

Brunson and the Knicks play four games next week, starting with the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.

The win also continued a pattern for Brunson against Chicago and Cleveland this season: his biggest scoring nights have come in wins, and New York's offense has run through him in each of them.