There has admittedly been some tough sledding for the Cleveland Cavaliers recently. The 24-point win over the fully healthy, top-seeded 76ers was overshadowed by a performance just 24 hours later against the New York Knicks. Facing a team that ended their season a year ago, they clearly had some of the same issues.

And two days later, against a Hornets team running makeshift lineups, they faced a 33-point deficit en route to losing by double-digits on the road. That was supposed to be their bounce back performance, but now it’s another bump on an already rocky road.

As a New York rematch looms, here are three reasons that the Cavs can actually pull off the upset at MSG.

1) Donovan Mitchell Brings His Best Against New York

In his last 10 games against the Knicks, Donovan Mitchell is averaging 28 points per contest. He’s hit 49% of all shots and 38% of threes in those ball games. And that should inspire a little bit of confidence from the team’s star coming in. He did just have 37 on Saturday night.

There have been nights against all teams in the league at some point in Mitchell’s career when he got going.

And now as he enters off by far his worst performance of the season and one of his most disappointing as a Cavalier, he can bounce right back. 

With the game being on ESPN, they don’t have much of a choice but to try and play better, and that will start with the 10-year veteran.

2) Knicks On Tail End Of Back-to-Back

Just like the Cavs were on Saturday night, the Knicks are going to be on the second leg of a back-to-back for this one. They face the 1-9 Milwaukee Bucks tonight, before turning their attention right to Cleveland. The hope could be that fatigue is a factor out there. 

The only victory in the past two seasons for the Cavs against this team came last February, going 1-7 in these battles, including 0-4, of course, in the 2026 postseason. Today’s day off for the Wine & Golders has hopefully allowed them to recharge and try to figure out just what went wrong against Charlotte.

They will have to be physical and force New York to run, hoping the tired legs can play a part out there.

3) Jarrett Allen Is Playing This Time

Height was a huge issue for the Cavs in Saturday’s meeting. They were outrebounded 49-40 and gave up 16 offensive rebounds. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 29 points and 13 rebounds, not bothered much by Evan Mobley or Thomas Bryant on the floor.

Being able to have the size on the floor this time should hopefully work to create some mismatches. Allen made all five of his shots in 19 minutes during the disappointing Charlotte contest, but he did seem to be moving well after missing three games with a knee injury.

In 12 career games against Towns, Allen has gone 6-6, averaging 13 points, seven rebounds, and one block per contest. He’s made 76% of his shots. Towns, meanwhile, averages 19 and 10, shooting just 51% from the floor by comparison, and 28% from 3PT.

Having the big man in the middle will hopefully give them some help in slowing the dominant New York center.

Gotta Have It

The Cavs would fall to 5-7 with a loss, and it would be their third in a row. The Hornets defeat showed that there are really no “gimmes” and the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will get to climb out of.

They gotta have this one. Play like they want it.