That part feels almost too neat. New York and Cleveland came into the year near the top of most preseason East conversations, and now they’re the last two teams standing in the conference.
Getting here was the messy part. For much of the season, the East looked unstable. Other teams pushed into the conversation. The Knicks had uneven stretches. The Cavs had their own wobbles. At different points, it was fair to wonder whether either group would settle down enough to make this kind of run.
That’s what makes this matchup interesting. The season spent months looking wide open, but in the end, it bent back toward the teams people expected before opening night.
So Knicks-Cavs in the ECF is both obvious and a little surprising. Obvious because the preseason case was always there. Surprising because neither team took a clean road to get here.
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