NEW YORK (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers snapped a three-game skid with a 95-89 win over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.
Caris LeVert scored 19 and Eric Mobley added 14 for Cleveland.
Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 24 points. Immanuel Quickley scored 18, Donte DiVincenzo had 16 and Mitchell Robinson finished with 16 rebounds.
New York was without RJ Barrett, who sat with a sore left knee. Julius Randle’s offense was also missing, as he finished with six points on 3-for-15 shooting from the field and 0-for-6 sniping from long distance.
The Knicks led 50-49 at halftime before the Cavaliers opened the third quarter with a 13-5 run and never relinquished the lead. Cleveland took an eight-point lead at 69-61 on Dean Wade’s 3-pointer with 55 seconds remaining in the quarter.
The Knicks were held to 13 points in the period and the Cavaliers carried a 71-63 lead into the fourth.
Wade hit another 3-pointer that gave Cleveland its biggest lead of the game at 77-68 with 9:10 remaining.
The Knicks closed within two points, 79-77, on Robinson’s free throw with 2:48 remaining. But Mitchell followed with a 3-pointer and a floater on the Cavalier’s next two possessions. The Knicks never got closer than five points the rest of the way.
The Cavaliers scored the first five points of the game and the Knicks scored the next nine.
Mitchell had 13 points in the opening quarter, but the rest of the team scored only 11 as Cleveland led 24-22 after the first.
The Knicks took their biggest lead of the first half, 33-28, on Josh Hart’s basket with 9:21 remaining in the second quarter. Hart finished with 11 points.
