East Finals: Knicks take 3-0 series lead over Cavs, move one win from first NBA Finals since 1999

CLEVELAND — One more night, 48 more minutes, of what they have been doing for nearly a month now is all it will take for the Knicks. One more performance like the one they put on display in Game 3, one more effort balanced with an intoxicating mix of precision and desperation, and the Knicks will earn the right to face either the Thunder or the Spurs for the NBA title.

They built a three-games-to-none lead in the Eastern Conference Finals with a methodical 121-108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, their 10th consecutive postseason victory (by an average of 22.5 points per game). They are one win away from their first trip to the NBA Finals since 1999, with a chance to close out the series Monday at Rocket Arena.

Any thoughts of a late Cavaliers comeback ended with Jalen Brunson dribbling through the entire defense and dropping in an uncontested layup. It sent the Cavs fans streaming for the exits and the Knicks’ bench leaping to greet Brunson as the Cavs called one last timeout with 1:49 left.

The arena echoed with loud chants of “Let’s go Knicks!” that went unanswered until the fans switched to “Knicks in four!”

The Knicks spent the day talking about the need to forget the winning streak and their advantage in the series. With a large contingent of their fans joining them here, they played as if their season were on the line. They built a 9-1 lead and never trailed.

“You know what?” coach Mike Brown said. “They’ve been fantastic trying to pay attention to all the details that we’ve been throwing at them. And we’ve thrown a lot of adjustments offensively and defensively at them throughout the course of these playoffs. And to still see them locked in and try to be focused on the details at hand, again, that just speaks volumes of my coaching staff and the way that they’re presenting and changing and all that stuff. But more so about these players and their want to go try to get a ring.”

Mikal Bridges continued his stellar play that has spanned nearly the entire streak, scoring 22 points and shooting 11-for-15. Brunson took over when he needed to with 30 points, 21 in the second half, and six assists.

Karl-Anthony Towns contributed a little bit of everything with 13 points (11 in the first quarter), eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals. OG Anunoby (21 points, seven rebounds) and Josh Hart outhustled the Cavaliers until the Knicks emptied the bench. Landry Shamet — who shot 4-for-5 from three-point range — scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

“It’s the mindset on this team that the next game, we are 0-0,” Towns said. “We have to come out with the same desperation as Game 1. Come with that energy and intensity and passion. And on top of that, lean on each other. That’s what got us here. We won all these games in a row as a team. We’ve had this winning streak as a team. We found ways to get these great wins as a team. Down [22] in the first game, we came back as a team. As long as we stay together and stay unified, we feel — we always have felt — the sky’s the limit for us.”

After Bridges struggled through the first five games of the postseason — 7.2 points per game with a total of seven assists, seven rebounds and six turnovers in that span — could you have expected this?

He put up 24 points and shot 10-for-12 in Game 6 against Atlanta and hasn’t stopped. He entered Saturday averaging 18.7 points and shooting 68.3% from the field (50.0% from three-point range) and 100% from the line, the first player in NBA history to average at least 15 points in a seven-game postseason span on those shooting metrics.

Said Brown, “He just started to impose his will on the game a little bit more while I also tried to make sure I called his number every once in a while, make sure he stays in the flow, because he has a tough assignment every day defensively. He gets out and runs, he slips pick-and-rolls and re-spaces. And so I have to make sure that I continue to involve him offensively to let him know that, hey, we know you can do this for us, so go do it.”

“It was tough, but you want to be great at whatever you want to do,” Bridges said of fighting through the struggles. “A lot of toughness comes from the mental part. I think I’ve been raised the right way, been coached by a lot of the great coaches who talk a lot about mental toughness. And sometimes you’ve got to thrive in it even if you’re struggling. The more you thrive, the better it’s going to be for you.”

Bridges is as even-keeled now as he was when he was struggling or when he was constantly measured against the package of draft picks the Knicks sent the Nets to acquire him.

“The expectations don’t matter,” Hart said. “That’s for y’all to talk about. That’s something that, I mean, nothing he can do about it. He didn’t call Leon [Rose] and say, ‘Yo, this is the trade package,’ you know what I mean? He got put into this situation and he hit the ground running. We wouldn’t be here without him. Last year, you can look — how many games has he won for us in terms of getting stops down the stretch, steals, blocks, big shots. He’s won games in every single way for us, and that’s why we want him, that’s why he’s here. The expectations and all that is just background noise.”

It may have seemed difficult to convince the Knicks that they were desperate after nine straight postseason wins, but it was something the players talked about and Brown stressed. While the Knicks fans here sang their chants, they tried to stay focused on the next game.

“I mean, they’re probably excited,” Brunson said of the fans. “Rightfully so, but we have a job to do and we have things that we need to focus on. That’s on them being them, but we have to be locked in to do what we do.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.