The Cavaliers led the Knicks by 22 points with less than eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night.
Somehow, someway, that lead did not hold. And the Cavaliers did not win.
The Knicks mounted a rally for the ages in a 115-104 overtime win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at Madison Square Garden. And after the game, Charles Barkley tore the Cavaliers to shreds for their performance.
Barkley said he doesn’t love to call out teams or people for doing a collapse like that, but he called it a “damn choke job.”
“Oh yeah, hell yeah, that was a choke job. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, that was a choke job. No, that was a choke job. Come on, man,” Charles Barkley said on the “Inside the NBA” postgame show on ESPN. They started taking the air out of the ball with six minutes to go like dummies.”
Cleveland led by two at halftime and then outscored the Knicks 35-23 in third quarter.
After James Harden hit the first of two free-throw attempts with 7:52 left in the fourth, the Cavs led 93-71 and looked well on their way to taking Game 1 on the road.
Whether Harden’s missing the second shot from the line changed the momentum or not, the Knicks rallied to tie the game with 19.3 seconds left.
Harden and the Cavaliers on May 19, 2026 at Madison Square Garden. Jason Szenes for the New York Post
The Knicks then outscored the Cavs 14-3 in overtime as an overjoyed crowd seemed as if it would blow the roof of the Garden.
Harden finished the night with 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting and just 1-for-8 from 3-point range. As a team, Cleveland went 16-of-50 from beyond the arc.
The Cavaliers can try to get over this “choke” in Game 2 on Thursday night.
