The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.A couple of The Athletic’s other newsletters have done mailbag editions, and it seems like a fun idea! If you want me or one of our writers to answer a burning question you have about the NBA or basketball, send it to thebounce@theathletic.com, and we’ll answer it soon.About last nightKnicks can’t be stoppedThe New York Knicks are on fire. They’ve won nine playoff games in a row after last night’s 109-93 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.After torching the Cavs in the fourth quarter and overtime of Game 1, Jalen Brunson turned into much more of a facilitator. He only had nine points through the first three quarters on 4-of-12 shooting and 1-of-7 from deep. But he also had 11 assists and just one turnover in the first three quarters.Six of those assists went to Josh Hart, who went from struggling to hit shots in the first half (12 points on 5-of-12 from the field and 2-of-7 from deep) to being the hero in the third quarter (12 points on 4-of-6 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep). The Cavs were determined to make Hart beat them, and he eventually was up for the challenge. He finished with a playoff career high of 26 points on 10-of-21 from the field and 5-of-11 from 3-point range. Brunson would eventually get going in the fourth quarter with 10 points and three more assists to finish with 19 and 14. But it was the third quarter for the Knicks that broke this game open. They outscored the Cavs 32-21 in the quarter.Cleveland is in familiar territory. Down 0-2 in a series and hoping things will get better at home. So far, they have. The Cavs have won four of the last five games in each of their two previous playoff series. They haven’t gone against this Knicks team, though. Following the game, the Cavs were adamant that they just missed shots. There might be something to that. They made 38.8 percent and were 9-of-35 from downtown (25.9 percent). A lot of these were pretty good looks, and the Cavs were 13th in the NBA in 3-point percentage and fifth in effective field-goal percentage. However, the playoffs have not been kind to them, with their 3-point accuracy falling from 36.0 to 33.4 percent and their eFG from 56.1 to 53.3 percent.You’d expect those shots to fall when they’re at home. However, this team has played 16 games in the last month and doesn’t look like it has its legs. The Cavs have been playing every other day, while the Knicks had nine days off before this series began. Cleveland also saw Evan Mobley have a good first half (14 points on 5-of-8 shooting) and then play nearly 18 minutes in the second half without attempting a single shot. And Donovan Mitchell looks hobbled on the court.But hey, they’re headed home!What do the Cavs need in Game 3? Take the easy points. Yes, the Cavs missed a bunch of open shots in this game. They also missed 10 free throws. I’d say they shot themselves in the foot, but they’d probably miss that shot too.