The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.The conference finals need to slow down a bit. We’ve had two games so far and three overtime periods. We’ve had one of the best individual performances we’ve ever seen and one of the biggest choke jobs we’ve ever seen. It’s Wednesday. I’m not complaining, by the way. I’m just trying to stop my heart from jumping out of my chest.About last nightKnicks snatch Cavs’ souls with comebackI’ve been adamant that the New York Knicks are going to the NBA Finals and that nobody in the Eastern Conference can really hang with them. Granted, I’ve only been saying this for a couple of weeks. But once we saw how mediocre the Pistons looked in the first round and after the 76ers knocked off the Celtics with a 3-1 comeback, it felt like the Knicks were destined for a return to the finals. Especially with the way they played in their previous seven playoff games entering last night’s Game 1 of the East finals.Then the Cleveland Cavaliers came out and reignited the “rest versus rust” debate. The Knicks, who hadn’t played in nine days, looked rusty. They looked slow. They looked uninspired. They looked like they were just waiting for the Cavs, who’d won a Game 7 against the Pistons on Sunday, to fold. Except that Cleveland took a two-point lead into halftime at Madison Square Garden, and then proceeded to build upon it throughout the second half.All of a sudden, the Cavs were up by 22 points with 7:52 left in the fourth quarter. Maybe all that confidence in the Knicks and our doubts about the Cavs were unwarranted?Then, over the next 12 minutes and 52 seconds (including overtime), the Knicks outscored the Cavs 44-11. New York targeted James Harden seemingly every time down the floor, with Jalen Brunson going to work. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson just … kind of … let it happen to his team. It was bizarre. Over that final 12:52 of game clock, including OT: