Almost a full day later it’s still hard to fathom what we watched Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. What was a ho-hum deflating loss to kick off the series became one of the greatest wins in New York Knicks history. Better than Devo versus the Sixers, Brunson in Detroit, and any of the wins last spring against the Celtics. As I sit here on Wednesday night, I can’t help but rank Monday’s win up there with Larry Johnson’s four-point play and game seven against Indiana in 1994.

As a fan we all go back and watch highlights of the great moments gone by to pass the time, or at least I do when I have a quiet moment alone. I’m sure I’m not alone though because there’s a growing subculture in the sports world built around looking at your friends and saying, “hey remember Jason Kidds’ three against the Nets,” and other highlights that thrive on YouTube. As a sports fan, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience a lot of great moments for the teams I support, like the Yankees winning the World Series in 09, Liverpool’s collection of trophies, and plenty of others along the way. But the Knicks were the team of mine that I had experienced the least amount of fun with, so I spent a lot of time watching clips like this.

But as I said in my series preview this group of Knicks broke the negative vibes a while ago and ever since then we’ve been riding the roller coaster with them to new heights. Tuesday’s series opener with the Cavs was just the latest wild night on 34th street as after sleepwalking for three and a half quarters, the Knicks came to life. After trailing by twenty-two points with 7:45 left on the clock something got into this team and the version we saw of them against Philly and Atlanta re-emerged. I could sit here and describe the run Jalen Brunson, and company went on from there, but my words couldn’t possibly do it justice, so I highly suggest you watch here instead.

Everything about the clip above is just so perfectly New York sports. The bedlam under the pin wheel ceiling, the celebrities urging on the crowd, the alumni players (Marbury and Starks) coaching so hard from their seat that Larry Johnson had to pull them off the floor. We had a few years taken off our lives watching that finish, a frightening thought considering its only game one, so I hope everyone enjoyed the off day as much the team who needed it more than us fans.

Rally aside, there is plenty to turn fix from game one for the Knicks. First and foremost, they had a brutal shooting from deep, as they were 4-23 at one point in the game. Second, they’ve got to clean up their possessions and take better care of the ball, as they were too stagnant on and off the ball for most of the night and gave the rock away unnecessarily making a pass that wasn’t there. In the second half they made two adjustments that helped turn things around at both ends of the floor and Mike Brown deserves as much credit as the players do for these changes.

He subbed out Josh Hart who was getting chewed up defensively for Landry Shamet, who was in the middle of all the action down the stretch. Shamet and the rest of the group on the floor got more aggressive on defense and spread the floor more on offense. The Knicks essentially played five out offensive basketball for the final seven minutes of the game and that broke Cleveland’s defense once and for all. With a lineup full of outside shooters on the floor, the Cavs started sending double teams and when the Knicks passed around them, they were able to get open drives to the basket which led to more easy buckets, trips to the line, or passes to open shooters left alone by the double team. This was the offense we got used to seeing in the last two rounds and hopefully it’s in order again in game two.

There is no doubt the Cavs poor execution and Kenny Atkinson’s sudden aversion to calling timeout definitely helped turn things around for the Knicks, and it also helped that they got some bounces down the stretch of their own, but that’s nothing to apologize for now. Almost a year ago to the day this team was on the wrong end of game one against the Pacers, a game that played out in almost the same fashion as this one. As great as Tuesday was, it’s only one game, so it’s time to step it up in game two and take a stranglehold on this series. I expect the Knicks to play a much stronger game from start to finish and maintain their momentum…and if they don’t, I’m sure there’s still plenty of MSG magic to lean on.

On twitter you can find Mike @Mike_Sheerin, Tyler @TMon_19 and Sean @SeanMartinNFL. Subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon.