News & Blogs
ECF Game Thread: Knicks vs. Cavaliers, Game 2, May 21, 2026 – Posting & Toasting
Josh Hart-led Knicks shoot past Cavs, take 2-0 series lead – ESPN
Knicks’ Mike Brown effusive of Josh Hart, compares him to Andre Iguodala: ‘Those dudes are winners’ – SNY
Ben Stiller Reacts to Video of Jalen Brunson, Mariska Hargitay Celebrating Knicks’ G2 Win vs. Cavs – BleacherReport
Knicks 109-93 Cavaliers (May 21, 2026) Final Score – ESPN
Josh Hart bounces back to help put Knicks two wins away from NBA Finals – SNY
Knicks 109, Cavs 93: Scenes from Josh Hart’s turn – Posting & Toasting
Josh Hart SILENCED his critics with a career best performance in Game 2! – Knicks Film School
Pod Strickland Episode 596 Patreon Preview: Cavalier Crush – The Strickland
Knicks-Cavs Eastern Conference Finals Game 2 Reaction with Jon Macri | The Putback with Ian Begley – Begley Putback
“I’m calling out all the Knicks fan naysayers!” | KFTV Caller of The Night – Knicks Fan TV
Jalen Brunson: Knicks Star Debunks Ball Hog Myth, Leads to Victory! #shorts – Knick of Time
YT News
34 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.05.23)”
The Jared McCain trade giveth (making the Sixers thin enough to be an even easier matchup for us), and it taketh (making the Thunder even deeper and tougher for a potential Finals matchup).
In the category of inject it straight into my veins….
https://x.com/TommyBeer/status/2057559798925697136/video/1?s=46
Not going to worry about the Thunder till we get there. But they look really good.
That’s me! Long story short, in order to get more stage time for myself, I accidentally created a magic show that’s entertaining and affordable ($10/$20). You can see a ton of magic or comedy shows for any price point in NYC, but there aren’t any (other) magic shows at the low end. I thought it would attract budding/amateur magicians, but mostly I’ve gotten lots of interest from working pros, because it’s hard for them to get stage time. So the shows are high quality. It’s not a money making endeavor, but it’s a super fun show in a smallish venues in Astoria, Park Slope, and LES.
Thanks for coming to my sales pitch/TED Talk.
Great clip, Owen.
The Thunder did appear daunting last night but that was also a miraculous role player game for them. Their bench is great but 68 pts from McCain, Williams, Caruso, and Wallace is an unholy anomaly.
Things change fast, though. Two games ago Isaiah Hartenstein was unplayable and the the Thunder were surely going to waive him this summer. (It is insane how differently he is being whistled now vs when he was guarding Embiid for us.)
Hoping for a Spurs bounce back tomorrow. This series needs to take a toll.
I’m suspecting right now that the gap between SAS and OKC is similar to the gap between CLE and NYK. Both NYK and OKC were rusty coming off a long rest in game 1, but the Spurs a) were a bit rested as well and b) got a bit lucky to hold off OKC in double OT while the Cavs got a bit unlucky in us having a shot bounce in and them having Merrill’s shot rim out.
OKC easily won game 3, and my guess is that if we had lost game 1, we would have easily won tonight’s game 3 in CLE.
I think the Spurs have a puncher’s chance to get it to 6 games, but doubt that it goes farther than that. OKC is clearly the better team and really should win in 5. Same with the Knicks vs. CLE.
And I’m coming to the shows. I go to shows with a former practicing magician current bridge professional, Knicks and Mets season ticket holder, who’s dear as fuck to me and I’m way into trying to figure out the tricks… saw this fork bending trick a couple weeks ago where this Ukrainian dude was bending the fork with his mind while an audience member was holding it at an old Italian spot on MacDougal. They forgave us having the game on mute under the table.
That magician is Mysterious Maks and you were at Monday Night Magic. Some of the same magicians that perform there perform for the NYC Magic Ensemble.
From a performer’s perspective, there is one huge difference between comedians/musicians and magicians is you can’t eat & watch a magic trick. So dinner shows are tough for magicians unless it’s setup so that magicians are performing in before, after, or timed in-between dishes.
Luckily my shows have NOT coincided with Knicks games. They were scheduled to have a game on my last Astoria show, but of course the series ended early. This week in Brooklyn the Knicks play Wed & Fri, and my show is Thu.
If you have $$$$ and want to see the best in the world, check out 69 Atlantic. Small theater style – like my shows, but they get the literal best magicians on earth that are willing to travel to NYC. The other would be the McKittrick Hotel.
If you have kids, check out the Broadway Magic Hour. It’s lower end priced, and they do a fabulous show!
I get a couple of nice shoutouts in this interview with Violet Grohl. Her album comes out Friday.
https://open.substack.com/pub/justinmoran/p/whos-that-violet-grohl?r=pmde9&utm_medium=ios
oh my goodness mike k….so, not only do you host like the super coolest sport’s forum/blog/thread/whatever online thing – you do magic too…
are you a life long deceiver, or is something just picked along the way…all eyes on me, i like that…what a rush that must be…how do you keep calm on stage, may just be the answer for me…hmmmm, okay…
so for a while, thought the greatest thing i could do was come to new york, chill with some of y’all, check out a music thing, grab a bite to eat, visit a nice spa/sauna place, go to history museum, find a park to play ball, look at some art, maybe even get to see a knick game…take it as it comes, with a plan…
nah man, magic show to the top of the list now…
i like to watch
not looking past cleveland but OKC really is a tough matchup. If there’s one thing we do not have it is enough real ballhandlers and even Jalen struggles against lots of ball pressure. Poor Stephon Castle with 20 TOs over the first 2 games – that is crazy.
meanwhile the league really is going to have to decide what to do about SGA-type foul baiting — it’s the off arm shove to create space, defender tries to get back into the play, then SGA jumps into them. Offensive foul followed by unnatural shooting motion and yet they still give it to him.
Brunson definitely does do some off-arm shoving but it’s to create space for the step-back, not to then jump into them when they try to recover.
watching reels of sga crumbling to the ground over and over/incessantly tell a story…
the story starts with the folks more invested in the game, but will eventually spread to even the casual fan…
this thing is gonna stay with sga hard next season…
who knows, maybe the league will clean it up – now that it seems so out in the open…
mostly likely the next mvp is just gonna be some alien…
JK47 is a fucking beast
The Giants are in for an interesting season https://x.com/1NCRDB1/status/2058138900187545756. Wonder if I should take the under on wins now.
Seems like they already decided to reward it a long time ago.
I don’t really like Wemby but I sympathize. To watch this guy get that whistle when it’s open season on your limbs must be frustrating.
expecting the cavs to try to “pound” the middle with mobley and allen on offense, try to work inside out…shoot lights out from three…
we’ll see how that goes for them…
mikal is picking up coverage beyond half court now, locked in and fluid…confident KAT continues his born again hard on defense enthusiasm…OG may just be getting healthier in into a flow on both ends, if that happens, we play very well…josh has shown a physical bully ball style defensively that making it really tough for anyone he’s guarding wearing a cavs uni to hold the ball much…
every team targets jalen brunson when we defend…still got the best defense in the league since we got our groove back after that tough losing stretch (where absolutely no one on the team wanted anything to do with defense)…
so let ’em keep trying…love that on both offense and defense cap’n clutch gives as good as he gets, and it seems he’s built for it all…
our bench needs to do much better defending without fouling…
the cavs stink without the line…actually, considering just how bad their free throw shooting has been, they can also stink with all those extra free throws they get…still, play better bench…
Yeah, perfectly put
What did JK do?
According to a post I saw, 42% of game 3 tickets purchased in NY and NJ
I think the NBA will work the SGA problem, just like it worked the Trae and Harden problems.
It should be the exception rather than the rule that a defensive player that is not engaging in a proactive physical move to gain an unfair advantage should ever be called for a foul. The most egregious case is the rip-through. The NBA partially addressed it by not making it a shooting foul, but they should go all the way and make it a non-foul…and if the offensive player loses the ball, just make it a side out, like a kick-ball. The defensive player should have to be doing something that is clearly illegally interfering with a offensive player’s natural motions, giving the defensive player an unfair advantage.
Punish blatant flopping like this shit with fines and suspensions. There was an attempt to do this, but it didn’t seem to get very far.
Maybe opposing coaches should be given a “flop” challenge, where they can request a review in obvious cases, and if it is upheld, it’s a technical foul with a FT, with an ejection on the second offense (or other tech.) Or the refs themselves can review the play, just like a potential hostile act. Flopping is considered an unsportsmanlike act. Maybe even have official reviews of every game and levy fines and potential suspensions against players who engage in foul-baiting behaviors.
Nice thoughts but it’s too late for any of that. OKC is already established as a dynasty and the NBA us starving for one.
Expect OKC’s custom rulebook to continue until they finish this five-peat ir whatever it’s gonna be.
Read this link:
I was just quoting Violet Grohl
Also, now I can I make jokes like “you must be a magician!” when the site goes down and you get it working again, Mike…
It going down is just an illusion!
(Not to jinx things, but it’s been pretty stable since the last set of upgrades, no?)
Mike K doing magic, JK rockin’… now we just need JB cooking! 🙂
We’ll only know if it “survives” game 7 of the NBA Finals! LOL
It’s kinda funny that the Thunder are so reviled that there’s a thousand new video compilations of their bullshit after every game. That one Z-man posted sounded like it came from someone in Kazakhstan!
The Thunder were great last night but I do think people are over indexing to that game a little too much. They got career best playoff games from two bench players at the same time, while a third bench player (Caruso) continues to shoot out of his mind. This is not normal, even for them.
People say SA was lucky to win game 1 (strange considering they did it without their starting PG), but I’d counter that OKC was lucky to win game 2. The Spurs were down to their third string PG in that game, and still OKC needed the best whistle of hartenstein’s life to win that game. Those tactics never should have worked.
Game 3 was OKC at their best. Game 4 should be San Antonio’s turn. They got punked. Let’s see what they’re made of… I think they have enough to even the series… they really need one of their PGs to be healthy, though.
The level of talent they have on their bench makes this the expectation, not an outlier. Their bench consists of about 10 players good enough to be our 6th man, or start for most teams.
Officiating being rigged in their favor is not a matter of luck. It’s repeatable. The “tactics” that are working against Wemby are the same ones that worked against Jokic last season. They continue to get away with murder while SGA just grifts and grifts on the other end.
They do not have enough to win the series. They likely will not win another game. OKC spotted them 15 points on their home floor and won more or less effortlessly. Their top guys are barely playing a regular season minutes load. They are very far from their limits.
Again, it’s hard to overstate how far ahead they are even of the next best team in the league. The injury to a 20 year old Spurs rookie is a significant factor, while the injury to OKC’s second best player is completely inconsequential. They could lose 4-5 more of their interchangeable athletic wings and still cruise to a ring.
Very cool JK!!!
OKC is the deepest team in the history of teams. There has never been a team with more good players on it. It’s astonishing.
Not to say they are the best team of all time but it can’t be a surprise when someone comes off their bench and plays a great game.
I don’t what the combined salary of all the guys on the team right now will be in three years but it’s going to be a huge number for a bunch of guys with almost no national recognition.
Whats funny about OKC is they don’t seem to have a single guy other than SGA who anyone had heard of in college. Well, Chet. But actually SGA was pretty anonymous. Maybe that is part of the strategy.
I don’t think OKC is unbeatable but they are very formidable and would be heavy favorites against us, at least at first. SGA, even if not the legit MVP, is a top-3 player and premier closer, Chet has become a two-way star. Dort and Caruso are both 1st-team defensive players who can stretch the floor. Their other role players are very, very good. They can throw numerous role-player configurations out there with different profiles: JWill, Cason, Ajay, iHart, Joe, McCain, Kenrich, and Wiggins are all bonafide rotation-quality players. And JDub, an all-star level player, might be back for the finals.
They also have the monkey off their backs by already having a chip in their pockets.
We have some things to throw at them that they don’t have great answers for, and shooting variance might work in our favor, but this is where little things like KAT’s brain farts, Mitch’s FT issues, Hart’s inconsistency, Brunson’s defensive limitations, and our bench having less variability in size and length (Deuce, Clarkson, Alvarado, and Shamet are all guard-sized players) give OKC a significant edge on paper. Our best asset is the force of will in our collective.
Dude, Jaylin Williams was averaging 3.3 ppg in his 400 playoff minutes entering last night. He scored 18 pts on 7 shots in 22 mins. This is literally — in the doogie-approved sense — an outlier.
Jared McCain has a smaller sample but he had 77 total points in the playoffs this year before scoring 24 last night.
Two bench guys go off like that this deep in the playoffs as often as Haley’s comet comes around.
Quietly the Thunder are having a hard time supporting SGA offensively without Jalen Williams. Chet isn’t a go-to score, and they got 7 points from Hartenstein, Mitchell, and Dort.
Dude, Jaylin Williams has put up 2.7 and 4.3 bpm the last two seasons. His playoff numbers are low because they hardly need him. He would be one of the best players on our team. This literally proves my point.
OKC is having a hard time with nothing. Their two wins this series were with limited or no JDub. They literally have a spare guy with the same name. Then they have multiple spares for him. They’re wiping the floor woth competition far superior to anything we’ve played.
They won’t lose another game in this playoffs unless SGA gets hurt.
how we feeling bout tonite??
For defense.
His Obpm was 0.0.
How about a friendly wager on your position, Pags?
Since you think it’s normal for Jaylin Williams to score 18 and Jared McCain 25, at least one of those things should happen again in this series, right?
I’ll give you either. If either happens, you win. If neither happens, I win.
Loser is not allowed to post until the NBA finals are over.
The bottom line is, Daigneault has all of his bench players ready to step up at any time. Cumulative stats are pretty meaningless.
lets stomp on those necks