Until this season comes to a close, every time the Cleveland Cavaliers face the New York Knicks, people will think back to last April. In a fairly one-sided series, the Cavs were the recipient of a gentleman’s sweep at the hands of the Knicks. Over the five-game stretch, Cleveland was outhustled, outmuscled, outworked, and forced home much earlier than expected with more questions than answers about what this group could be.

Cavs head coach JB Bickerstaff shared that his gameplan was too one-dimensional against New York and the humbling the Knicks gave them was part of the focus on how to improve during the offseason. The loss at the hands of the Knicks has also motivated the Cavs, and as this season has rolled along it seems that the basketball gods would allow Cleveland to try and put their New York demons to rest in the postseason.

But before that could happen, there was a playoff-worthy matchup between the teams, with the Cavs hosting the Knicks for the final time in a three-game regular season series.

For Cleveland, even without Donovan Mitchell (knee) and Caris LeVert (elbow), it could serve as a bit of a test to see how they could handle the rigors of a dreaded New York team. Sure, the Knicks were without OG Anunoby, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson and even lost Jalen Brunson less than a minute into the game. But, the morale boost from winning the regular season series against New York could do wonders for Cleveland mentally and that edge could pay off in spaces during the postseason.

Instead, the exact opposite happened to the Cavs as the incredibly undermanned Knicks outhustled, outmuscled, and outworked Cleveland, defeating the Cavs 107-98.

It also left more questions than answers about this Cleveland team, especially if they’re tough enough to play when the lights are brightest. Josh Hart, a 6-foot-4 nightmare last April, looked like prime Dennis Robman against the Cav, recording a triple-double, tallying 13 points, 10 assists, and 18 rebounds in 45 minutes.

“Effort. That simple,” Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff said. “Josh Hart is a winner, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win basketball games. Got to give him a ton of credit to play the amount of minutes that he played and go out and be as effective as he was. He’s a heck of a player but that’s what it came down to is too many plays, and [they] set the tone with the first play. They get an offensive rebound on the first possession. We’ve got to better and understand how important it is to us.

“We can’t pick and choose when we’re going to be at our best. We did it in the second quarter. We did it in the fourth quarter. But we’ve got to play four quarters of Cavs basketball.”

But, maybe it’s more than effort when it comes to Hart and the Knicks against the Cavs. Hart’s triple in Evan Mobley’s face with 1:36 remaining had him staring down Cleveland’s bench, giving New York the lead for good. Moments after, Hart grabbed at a spectating Mitchell’s chain, taunting Cleveland’s best player and the Cavs all at once. Although it was a brief moment in an overwhelming beatdown, it’s still emblematic that these Knicks aren’t only dominating Cleveland physically, but they are mentally as well.

“They’re physical. They fly up and down the court. They’re a fast team. Just got to want it,” Okoro explained. “At the end of the day, that’s all it takes is effort. Just got to come out with energy. That’s it. Lackluster. Some games we have energy and some games we don’t. Just got to be consistent with the energy.”

Even without their four best players, New York handled the Cavs in stride, like a lion playing with its food before going in for the kill. Even without their four best players, the Knicks were still the better team, even with Cleveland having home-court advantage.

Sure, the Cavs were missing Mitchell, their best player, but, this Cleveland team is still too talented to struggle to find consistency and with the playoffs on the horizon, this loss to New York was a massive step backward.