NEW YORK — The New York Knicks stole the Cleveland Cavaliers’ favorite strategy, then obliterated them with it.With New York down 22 points during Tuesday’s fourth quarter, Jalen Brunson dribbled into what should have been a meaningless pick-and-roll. His teammate, OG Anunoby, laid the screen. The Cavaliers switched defenders. Brunson trekked into the paint and floated a shot into the hoop.Without much time to go in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Knicks trailed by 20.Until they tried the move again. And again. One pick-and-roll. Then another. And another. And Cleveland’s edge shrank.To 17. Then 15. Then 14.That’s when the Cavaliers lost the plot. They had built a gargantuan lead, one so large that no team in the history of the playoffs had let an equivalent one vanish with so little time to go, much because of their defensive alignment. From the beginning of the game, Cleveland stuck its center, Jarrett Allen, on Josh Hart, a do-everything wing who actually doesn’t do one thing: shoot 3-pointers consistently. The matchup allowed Allen to roam down low, clogging the paint and walling off opportunities for layups and cushy kickout passes.The Knicks did not have space and thus could not manufacture top-tier offense.Not with Allen obstructing the middle. Not with the team running its early-game offense through Karl-Anthony Towns, a strategy that didn’t work as well as it had earlier in the playoffs, considering former Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley was draped all over him. And not with the Cavaliers’ top perimeter defender, Dean Wade, attaching himself well enough to Brunson.New York scored a paltry 68.8 points per 100 possessions with Hart on the court in Game 1. It more than doubled that figure when he was off it. And so, by the fourth quarter, head coach Mike Brown had opted away from the man who is usually one of his most trusted wings. Hart went to the bench. Landry Shamet, a reliable long-range marksman, replaced him. The Knicks had solved one element of Cleveland’s defensive blueprint. As the lead dwindled, at least the Cavaliers still had Wade on Brunson — and at least they held onto a 14-point advantage with only five-and-a-half minutes to go.Then they conceded both.With the lead down to 14, Brunson jogged up the court, dribbling at Wade without much threat. After he crossed the logo, Mikal Bridges approached, presumably for a screen, one he never actually had to set.The strategy the Knicks had ripped from Cleveland was one they had used to slice apart the Philadelphia 76ers during a second-round, four-game sweep. Against Philly, they targeted Joel Embiid’s unfleet feet. It took them 40 minutes versus the Cavaliers to select their new victim.“There’s no secret we were attacking (James) Harden,” Brown said.Once the Knicks started, they did not stop. On the back ends of each of these screens for Brunson, the ones that chopped the lead to 20, then 17, then 15, then 14, and beyond was Harden, the former MVP who is known better for his stepback jumpers than for his defensive acumen.