Julius Randle returns, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart star as Knicks edge Cavs in Game 1 – The Athletic

CLEVELAND — Julius Randle saved just enough for one last jump. He knew he had it in him, too.

He began tracking the basketball as soon as teammate Jalen Brunson rose for a jumper on the other side of the court. With under 10 seconds to go and the New York Knicks clinging to a two-point lead, whatever energy was still in those legs would go into one final leap. The basketball ricocheted off the rim. Randle soared for it, grabbed it 10 feet above the court and lobbed it out to Quentin Grimes, who sealed the Knicks’ first playoff win in two years with a couple of free throws.

New York now leads Cleveland 1-0 in its first-round series after a 101-97 victory Saturday night.

Randle was not perfect during his return from a sprained left ankle. He missed 13 of 20 shots and scored only three points in the second half after coming out firing. Heck, he even took a risk trying for what is now the biggest offensive rebound in a season littered with big-time boards. Because Evan Mobley, the Cavaliers player responsible for guarding Randle, was shading so far off him to monitor Brunson, Randle had a lane to the hoop. If he hadn’t come up with the ball, though, the Knicks would have been vulnerable to a fast break.

But he got it. Because this is what All-Stars do. Need a play, and they’ll make it — bad ankle and all.

“It was just about winning the game at that point,” said Randle, who finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. “I don’t think J.B.’s going to miss, but if he does, get on the glass, try to win the game.”

From the outside, it wasn’t clear if Randle would participate in Game 1. The last time he played was March 29, when he sprained his ankle against the Miami Heat. He never went through contact drills in practice. The Knicks listed him as questionable coming into the evening.

This wasn’t the typical Randle experience, even once the team deemed him good to go less than an hour before tipoff.

Normally, Randle plays for at least the beginning nine minutes. Sometimes, he’ll stay in for the entire first quarter. On Saturday, head coach Tom Thibodeau subbed him out less than five minutes into the game.

“See me breathing out there today? I was tired. I was tired as hell for sure,” Randle said. “That’s why we have such a great team. Able to lean on the guys: J.B., Josh (Hart), everybody. We’re able to pick each other up.”

Late in the game, it was Randle picking up Brunson, skying for one final rebound, his 10th of the evening. Only a play earlier, it was Isaiah Hartenstein doing the lifting, slapping a miss from Hart out to the perimeter for another second-chance opportunity, which led to Brunson floating in an 8-footer.

Leave it to this group to seal its first playoff game in two years with clutch offensive boards. After all, this is what the Knicks do.

No other playoff team relies more on snagging its misses to score. There are moments when the Knicks’ best offense is a clunker, if only because a way-off jumper might as well be a pass to Hartenstein, Hart or Mitchell Robinson. It felt that way at times in Game 1.

The Cavs are big up front with Mobley and Jarrett Allen, but they’re still vulnerable on the boards.

Nearly half the time the Knicks missed a shot in Game 1, they got another. They grabbed 17 offensive rebounds — 42 percent of their misses.

“You got to get a body to them,” Thibodeau said. “For us, it’s one of the things we do well. We’ve been a good rebounding team all year. We know that’s a big part of our game. And we’re going to have to continue to do it.”

Rebounding a bunch of your misses is a good way to save yourself. Thibodeau repeated the same message during his postgame news conference.

“We know we’re gonna have to play a lot better than we did tonight,” he said.

They were frenetic early, as were many of the Cavs. Brunson picked up a couple of early fouls, which sent him to the bench. A third foul only minutes into the second quarter sent him to his seat once again. Thibodeau mentioned defensive issues, though he wasn’t specific about the critique. He may have been referring to the way the team guarded Donovan Mitchell, who went for 38 points and got into a rhythm pulling up from long range.

New York didn’t shoot the ball well. RJ Barrett was only 2 of 12. Grimes made only one shot. Immanuel Quickley didn’t make any. Robinson tried two layups that missed the rim entirely.

But they picked up each other. Brunson finished with 27 points in only 29 minutes. Twenty-one of those came in the second half. Josh Hart went for 17 points and 10 boards, including five offensive ones, during his playoff debut. Obi Toppin helped New York on a mini-run in the third quarter after Cleveland looked like it was about to take over.

The Knicks crushed the Cavs in the bench minutes. What became clear early is that Cleveland trusts only seven players. Allen and Darius Garland played nearly the whole second half. Mitchell did play the whole second half, which ended poetically — and not just because a group thirsty for offensive rebounds recovered a couple more to close out a victory.

It was as if the basketball gods were paying the Knicks back for the bad fortune of the past.

Only a couple of years ago, the Knicks lost a similar Game 1 to the Atlanta Hawks. With under a minute to go in a tie game, Alec Burks pulled up for a potential go-ahead shot but hit the back of the rim. The ball bounced to Knicks big man Taj Gibson and Hawks center Clint Capela, who fought for it so mightily that it trickled away into the hands of Trae Young, who gave Atlanta the lead on the ensuing possession.

The Knicks lost that evening and fell in the series in five games.

They hope a bounce going right for them this time can mean a different ending.

“Funny how things turn, right?” Randle said. “Yeah, we were in the same position two years ago. … That experience was important for us. It brought us to this point here. Great first game for us.”

(Photo of Dean Wade and Julius Randle: Jason Miller / Getty Images)