Darius Garland: Knicks 'Beat Up' Cavs in Playoff Series
New York is often referred to as "the city that never sleeps." That moniker proved a bit too literal for Darius Garland.
The Cleveland Cavaliers' All-Star point guard told Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor that he practically lost sleep thinking about his team's playoff loss against the New York Knicks last year.
“It took a couple of weeks (to get over it), probably until the second round, probably until (the Knicks) lost," Garland, partaking in Basketball Without Borders' South Africa program, declared.
The Cavaliers were seeded fourth, but the fifth-ranked Knicks eliminated them in five games. Garland averaged 20.6 points in his first playoff series as a pro and sank a Cleveland-best 38.7 percent from deep in their postseason cameo.
Even though Cleveland took Game 2 by 17 thanks in part to a 32-point showing from the fourth-year man out of Vanderbilt, Garland thought he and his team played poorly throughout the entire series.
“Even the game we won at home that was a blowout, I still feel we had a lot of mistakes that we could have cleaned up in that game," Garland said. "(There were) different ways to attack their switches, how to better attack (Knicks center) Mitchell Robinson. Those were a couple of things that stuck with me."
Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson was the hero of the series, as he averaged 24.0 points, 4.8 assists, and 2.2 steals in five games, all team-highs. With the four wins, the Knicks earned their first playoff series victory since 2013, dispatching both Garland and fellow All-Star Donovan Mitchell, the latter of whom was the subject of New York trade speculation throughout last summer. The Knicks moved on to face No. 8 Miami in the Eastern Conference's semifinal round but fell in six games to the eventual finalists.
Garland reflected on how well the Knicks played and how the pain of losing that series will benefit Cleveland next season. The Cavs, potentially trying to convince Mitchell to stick around for the long term, have not won a playoff series since their run to the NBA Finals in 2018 and their last without LeBron James on the roster came in 1993.
“I think their physicality took a toll on us in that series," Garland said. "They beat us up. We now know how physical the game is in the playoffs and we know how fast the pace is and every possession matters. (We're) ust taking little bits and pieces of that series and trying to put it together for the regular season and then also carry that into the playoffs.”
The NBA schedule hasn't come out yet but Garland will seemingly have the dates against the Knicks circled on his calendar once they're made public.
You can follow Hunter De Siver on Twitter @HunterDeSiver.
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