On Wednesday night, the Wine and Gold wrap up their longest roadie of the young season, making their first appearance at The Garden this year for a matchup with the new-look Knicks.
The Cavaliers are coming off a 116-112 win over the Raptors – snapping a three-game losing streak and prolonging their three-game regular season win streak against Toronto. The Raptors had beat their last four opponents at home by an average of almost 30 points per, but the Cavaliers – despite losing J.R. Smith to a knee injury late in the first quarter – nearly went wire-to-wire over their Eastern Conference Finals foe.
The Knicks come into tonight's meeting as the hottest team in the East – having won nine of their previous 12 contests, including Tuesday night's 114-103 victory over the Heat in Miami.
Cleveland dropped the Knicks in the season opener at The Q, but both squads have evolved since then and Wednesday's contest against the King and Co. will be a good barometer for just how far Jeff Hornacek's group has come.
It's been an up-and-down ride for Carmelo Anthony since his arrival in New York – mostly down over the last few years, with the Knicks missing the Playoffs in the last three seasons. But Carmelo's squad is right back in the mix this season and the influx of veteran talent and young risers has reinvigorated his career in New York.
The Knicks' nine-time All-Star forward leads the team in scoring once again this year (22.5 ppg) and is coming off a 35-point performance in last night's matchup in Miami – going 13-for-27 from the floor in the win. For the 27th time in their careers, Melo and LeBron James will square off in a meeting of two of this generation's true heavyweights – with Cleveland's four-time MVP holding a 15-12 head-to-head advantage.
Like Anthony, LeBron is coming off his high-scoring mark for the season – dropping 34 points on the Raptors on Monday night. James notched his first of three triple-doubles this season in the Cavs' season opening win over New York – finishing with 19 points, 14 assists and 11 boards.
Kyrie Irving draws a tough assignment at the point almost every night; but he's not an easy day at the office for opponents, either.
On Wednesday night, it's another marquee matchup at the head of the snake when Kyrie tangles with Derrick Rose, who's having a solid first season in the Big Apple. The former MVP and New York's assist leader has notched double-figures in all but one game this year and has topped the 20-point plateau on five occasions.
Just as important, Rose is completely healthy for the first time in years – playing the first 21 games of the campaign for the first time since 2010-11.
He'll have to be at his best on both ends if the Knicks hope to snap their five-game home losing streak to the Cavaliers, because Kyrie has been on a roll all season – notching his career-best 10th straight game of at least 20 points in Monday's win over Toronto.
Cleveland's dynamic point guard loves playing in Madison Square Garden, where he's averaging 28.4 points in five appearances – his highest mark among all NBA venues, shooting.531 (51-of-96) from the field, .433 (13-for-30) from beyond the arc and .871 (27-of-31) from the foul line at the World's Most Famous Arena.
The Cavaliers get their second look this season at the second-year star that Kevin Durant once dubbed the “unicorn” – 21-year-old big man Kristaps Porzingis. The remarkably versatile 7-3 forward from Latvia has shrugged off any notions of a sophomore jinx, coming into the contest as New York's second-leading scorer at 20.6 ppg, adding 7.4 boards and a team-high 1.67 blocks per game.
Earlier this month, Porzingis became the youngest Knick to score 35 points in a game when he recorded his career-high in a win over Detroit. This season, the Knicks are 7-4 when Porzingis scores 20 or more points and 5-5 when he doesn't.
New York's unicorn will match up primarily against Kevin Love – who's coming off his best game in a week – doubling-up against the Raptors with 28 points and 14 boards.
The three-time All-Star has doubled-up in 12 of his last 14 outings against the Knicks, including 20-10 games in each of the last three meetings. Over that 14-game span, Love is averaging 22.3 points and 14.4 boards per.
With J.R. Smith out of the lineup after suffering a left knee hyperextension on Monday night, Coach Lue will go with DeAndre Liggins in the starting lineup in his place. Liggins was solid on both ends in 21 minutes of action against Toronto – keeping DeMar DeRozan relatively in check and canning a big third quarter triple to stave off a Raptors' run.
Naturally, Iman Shumpert — who's having a rock-solid season on both ends of the floor — will see some heavy minutes as well.
Cleveland's second unit was very good against Toronto – led by Channing Frye, who's averaging 15.5 ppg off the bench in two meetings with the Raptors this year. Frye has been outstanding with the second unit this season – posting double-figures in nine of his 14 outings so far this year.
The Knicks have limited firepower off their bench, but Brandon Jennings is always a threat to go off and Kyle O'Quinn – who doubled-up with 20 points and 13 boards in a spot start this week against Minnesota – has been a steady presence off Jeff Hornacek's bench all season.
