Cavs bench struggles in Game 1 loss to Knicks, shows no spark

CLEVELAND — On a night when the starters — save for Donovan Mitchell who was his usual dominant self — needed more bench support than ever, the Cavs simply got outplayed. The loss to the New York Knicks in Game 1 on Saturday was frustrating enough and the Cavs weren't able to pull ahead until about two minutes left in regulation — the team's first lead since a two-point advantage in the first quarter. When coach J.B. Bickerstaff turned to the bench to provide any spark at all, the Cavs came up empty. The Knicks' bench outscored Cleveland's 37-14 and, in fact, Josh Hart (17) came in third off the New York bench and outscored the Cavs reserves on his own. Bickerstaff said the disparity wasn't because of anything specific — no particular matchup or scheme the Knicks ran in those minutes that put the Cavs on their heels — rather an inability to manufacture any buckets. "Obviously our bench has to give us a spark," Bickerstaff said. "How do we create for one another and how does our bench support our starting cast? … At some point in time you've got to find a way to just put the ball in the basket and I thought that unit kind of struggled there." The Cavs reserves shot 4-of-13 from the field, including 2-of-7 from 3-point range, while the Knicks reserves shot 13-of-23 from the field with nearly double the attempts thanks to so many second chances. As a team, the Knicks outrebounded the Cavs 51-38 and had 17 offensive rebounds (seven in the fourth quarter) to the Cavs' 11, and eight of New York's offensive boards came from its bench. The Cavs' bench, on the other hand? Zero offensive rebounds and a mere five total. "At the end of the day, you can't give up 17 offensive rebounds," Bickerstaff said. "That's one of the things we continued to talk about. We were well aware of what (the Knicks) were capable of. This is a wake-up call and a learning lesson for our guys." Caris LeVert, who has been Cleveland's go-to guy off the bench the last few weeks of the regular season, did not have the kind of performance the team's seen from him lately and certainly could have used. He shot 1-of-7 from the field and 0-for-3 from deep, finishing with a disappointing three points, and added one rebound and one assist to be essentially a non-factor against the Knicks. The lone spark off the bench came from Cedi Osman, who had nine points on 3-of-4 shooting, including the sole 3-pointers from the bench. Other than Mitchell (six) and Darius Garland (two), Osman was the only Cleveland player to make a 3-pointer. "We've got to take care of the basketball, but at the end of the day, this was our first playoff game in a long time," Osman said. "Obviously it's not an excuse, but we've definitely got to be better." Panic has not set in just yet with Game 2 on Tuesday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, but the Cavs are left with more questions than answers after falling flat in a moment the team felt like it was well-prepared for. If needed, Bickerstaff said he'll go deeper into the bench to find guys who can be more productive. "We've got to find some sparks there," he said. Contact Marissa McNees at ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow her on Twitter @MarissaNM.