Knicks vs. Cavaliers Pregame Notes: Revenge Game?

Defending home court was a consistent theme for the Knicks prior to the start of this season. Actually doing so has, thus far, been a different story.

Of course, the team is doing better at home (2-4) than on the road (1-6) so far this season, but by and large, it’d be a stretch to say that they’ve defended Madison Square Garden. There was no better example of that than last Sunday’s 108-87 defeat at the hands of the Cavaliers, who return to the Garden tonight to give the Knicks a shot at redemption.

“Yeah I mean obviously we want to win the game like any other game,” Knicks head coach David Fizdale said during his pregame press conference. “It’s fresh in our minds at least, and we can go right back to that feeling of suffering again and hopefully we can come out and play a better basketball game.”

There was indeed a lot of pain and suffering on that night, as the team went down by as many as 30 and felt the wrath of their home fans, getting showered with boos midway through the third quarter.

A large part of that anguish was caused by Collin Sexton, who erupted for 26 points and five 3-pointers against New York, and backcourt mate Darius Garland, who poured in 12 points and six assists of his own. Containing that pair will be key for the Knicks tonight if they want to avoid a repeat of just over a week ago.

“Transition defense, obviously,” Fizdale said of the Knicks’ to-do list tonight. “One, take care of the ball, and transition defense kind of goes hand-in-hand. But we have to definitely impact those two guards. Those guys were really putting a lot of pressure on our defense, and we have to do a better job of impacting them, building a wall and really challenging them.”

The defense should be in a much better way with a key addition to the rotation since the last Cavs game. Mitchell Robinson is active and, according to Fizdale, "he’s gonna keep doing what he does, he’s gonna fly around.” So it would seem that Robinson’s twisted ankle he suffered in the game against the Hornets Saturday night is not expected to be an issue.

Robinson will again come off the bench, however, with Taj Gibson holding down the starting center spot once again. The Knicks' starting five will remain unchanged for now, at least.

Time will tell if the Knicks will start doing a better job at defending home court long-term this season, but tonight’s game will be as big of an indicator as any of if they’re ready to start taking that mantra seriously against a team that embarrassed them just a week ago.