Knicks-Cavs series: Quentin Grimes’ clutch free throws, defending Donovan Mitchell and more

CLEVELAND — Quentin Grimes has a phone, too.

He, like the rest of the basketball world, saw the exchange last month between Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell and Boston Celtics big man Grant Williams.

Williams was heading to the line with under a second to go in a tie game. Mitchell jabbered the obligatory pre-free-throw trash talk. The cameras caught Williams’ response: “I’m gonna make ‘em both,” he said. But he didn’t make either shot. The game went into overtime, and Boston lost.

On Saturday, Grimes was in a similar position, walking to the stripe with the Knicks up two and a chance to put the game away with a couple of makes when Mitchell said something to him, hoping to throw the second-year guard off kilter.

Grimes chose not to respond. He then knocked in both free throws, icing a 101-97 New York win and giving his Knicks a 1-0 lead in their first-round playoff series against the Cavs.

“(Williams) kind of jinxed himself with that one,” Grimes said with a smile. “So I was like, let me make sure I just stay cool and calm and stay to myself, stay in my own head.”

Grimes said he didn’t realize until after the final buzzer that the free throws were his first big-time playoff moment.

“I was pretty calm when I went up there,” he said. “Put in a lot of work for the whole season in those situations. I felt like when I went to the line for the first time I was like, just stay calm. It’s a free throw. You shoot them a thousand, maybe millions of times. Go up there and knock them down.”

It’s not just Grimes who is new to the playoffs, either. This series is loaded with players getting their first or second taste of the postseason.

The Knicks’ nine-man rotation has played a total of only 56 postseason games. Nearly half of those games, 26, belong to Jalen Brunson, who helped the Dallas Mavericks to the Western Conference finals last season. Three guys (Grimes, Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson) just played their first playoff game Saturday. This is Isaiah Hartenstein’s first playoff series as a rotation player, too. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are on the same level. They’re young, and other than Mitchell, none of their most-important performers have experience in spring basketball.

But at least for Grimes, the returns on the first high-pressure moment were positive.

“He tried to get in my head a little bit,” Grimes said. “I’m too tough for that. It’s all good. He tried to say something. I didn’t even worry about that. Go up there and knock the second one down and ice the game.”

There’s lots to discuss heading into Game 2, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (ET) Tuesday night. Here are four more thoughts on Knicks-Cavs.

Injury update

Grimes’ role could become even more important in Game 2. If Hart is unable to go or is hobbled, Grimes is one of the people disproportionately affected.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau said Hart was limited in practice Monday after the 28-year-old sprained his left ankle jumping for a rebound late in Game 1. The Knicks have listed him as doubtful for Game 2.

“Usually with sprains like that, it’s more about how you feel the next day,” Thibodeau said. “He said he felt fine in the game, and we’ll see where he is (Tuesday).”

Hart was the Knicks’ brightest spot in Game 1, going for 17 points and 10 rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting in his first-ever playoff game. He guarded Mitchell for much of the evening and snagged five of the team’s 17 offensive rebounds.

Making up for Hart

If Hart is unable to go in Game 2, the list of reactions seems endless.

Grimes would have to spend more time on Mitchell. Maybe the Knicks match Grimes’ minutes to the Cavs’ star. RJ Barrett would have to pick up the slack on offense, as would Immanuel Quickley. Would the rotation scrunch to eight or would Miles McBride sneak onto the court? The Knicks would lose one of their best rebounders after they manhandled the Cavs on the boards a few days earlier. They would have to make up for Hart’s loss in transition, too. His ability to grab boards or steals and dart the other way is part of the second unit’s identity.

But let’s start with Quickley, Barrett and even Grimes, who could benefit from a simple adjustment: They have to play better.

Quickley had only three points and two assists in Game 1. Grimes shot just 1 of 4 from the field. Barrett shot 2 of 12 and scored only seven points, though he added six assists and four steals.

Hart’s hypothetical absence would mean the emergence of someone new in the closing lineup. Thibodeau could go with any two of those three aforementioned players, alongside Brunson, Julius Randle and a center.

Barrett, who played during crunchtime in Game 1, said he liked the looks he was able to get Saturday when Cleveland dared him to put up 3-pointers.

“If I’m open I’m going to shoot it,” Barrett said. “If they close out, I’m driving. It’s pretty simple.”

Thibodeau wants him to take those 3s, too. But there’s a reason the Cavs are so willing to give open looks to Barrett. He shot just 25 percent from deep over his last 28 games of the season. If he keeps letting them fly but keeps hitting iron, the Knicks have other options, even if Hart is out.

Meanwhile, Quickley had one of his worst performances in weeks. He missed all five of his shots and committed three turnovers. He can help make up for the pace the team would lose with Hart. He’s another option in the closing lineup, considering he and Grimes could man the dynamic duo of Mitchell and Darius Garland.

Guarding Mitchell

Following Game 1, Thibodeau said the Knicks had to be better on defense. He wouldn’t go into any more detail. So, let’s speculate.

The first place the mind goes to is Mitchell, who went for 38 points, five rebounds and eight assists. His line could have been even gaudier, too.

The Knicks threw various coverages at Mitchell, but there’s a reason the man is headed for his first All-NBA team.

“You’re not gonna give a guy like Mitchell a steady diet of anything,” Thibodeau said. “Because he’s seen every defense there is.”

But if the Knicks make similar mistakes in Game 2, they might consider another 38-point showing fortunate.

Mitchell flung up 16 3-pointers and made six of them. There’s a world where that number could have ended up at eight or nine, too.

The Knicks’ pick-and-roll coverage was imperfect. They like their big men to come up to the level of the screen against Mitchell, so he can’t walk into pull-up 3-pointers. But more than once, the centers dropped a few feet too far back, which rolled out the red carpet for Mitchell to toss up off-the-dribble 3s.

Check out this play from the second quarter, when Robinson should have been up higher on Mitchell, who notices the space and swishes in a jumper.

Or this one, when Hartenstein commits the same sin:

On this play in the second half, Randle comes up to the level of the screen, as he’s supposed to do, but he leaves his hands below his hips. Defense is about more than just being in the right place. If your palms are touching your thighs instead of up and ready to contest a jumper, you might as well be sitting in the stands.

That wasn’t the only time Mitchell went at Randle in pick-and-rolls and created decent looks from deep, either.

Surely, the Knicks have focused on tightening up these issues in Game 2. And this is hardly the only way they guarded Mitchell, too. They commonly send two defenders his way, too, trapping him in the hopes that someone else would end up with the basketball. They may slant a different way come Game 2, anyway. For all we know, they use Randle to blitz Mitchell from the opening tip. But whatever the Knicks are running, they could be a bit more attentive to detail.

All of this is easier said than done. Mitchell is one of the greats for a reason. But that’s how the playoffs often go. Give a dominant player a sliver of daylight, and he can kill you for it.

Guarding the weak side

Let’s turn what Barrett said about the Cavaliers around on him.

Before the series began, Barrett fielded a question about the Cavaliers’ elite rim protection. “They can’t guard everything,” he mused. And he was correct. Every defense has to concede some part of the floor. And in Game 1, we saw which part the Knicks were down to give up: Whoever was hanging out in the weak-side corner.

This isn’t novel for New York. The Knicks notoriously help off weak-side shooters in an attempt to take away the paint, as we covered in the final section of our series preview. Heck, at one point during the final regular-season match between these two, Barrett shaded so far into the lane while he was guarding Caris LeVert that LeVert started practicing his shooting motion in the middle of the possession.

In Game 1, the Cavaliers weren’t able to get the ball to that guy in the corner often. And when they did, it didn’t lead to many baskets.

Cleveland shot only 1 of 6 from the corners. Isaac Okoro clanked all three of his looks, Cedi Osman missed one and Garland sank 1 of 2.

The Knicks have made an obvious decision. They won’t lose because Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and the rest of the Cavs’ stars get in rhythm going to the basket. And if a role player beats them because he gets hot from the corner, so be it.

As Barrett says, you can’t guard everything.

Whoever knocks down those shots — out of Okoro, LeVert and Osman — might be the one who ends up playing the most in this series. Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff went with Osman at the end of Game 1, which was big for Brunson’s finish, considering it meant no crunchtime for Okoro, Cleveland’s top perimeter defender.

Until the Cavaliers make them pay, though, the Knicks will keep guarding the corners this way. Heck, look at how far Quickley strays from Garland, one of the world’s best shooters, just to make sure Mitchell can’t get to the hoop on this second-quarter play:

If the Knicks are so committed to the bit that they’ll concede the corner 3 to someone of Garland’s caliber, just imagine how many consecutive shots Okoro would have to make before they considered adjusting their approach.

Maybe that happens. Maybe Okoro has a game where he drains a few 3s. Maybe Osman or LeVert gets hot; both are streaky shooters capable of going on game-altering runs if they’re open play after play.

But this strategy worked for the Knicks in Game 1. You can’t guard everything, and the Knicks have made it clear what they’re willing to relinquish.

(Photo of Quentin Grimes and Donovan Mitchell: Jason Miller / Getty Images)