Some players on the Cleveland Cavaliers are viewing their upcoming home and home back-to-back series with the New York Knicks as the upcoming opponent on their schedule. For others, the sting of last season ending at the hands of New York still lingers. The emotions will be heightened on either side due to their recent history, which now has the Cavs and Knicks forever linked. It adds depth and dynamic to an early-season national TV game that isn't typical for late October.

“It’s a big game for us,” said Evan Mobley. “We definitely really want to get this win and really put it on ‘em. So we’re definitely getting prepared and ready. We definitely want to go out there and really show the crowd and show our team as well that we’re out here to really fight.”

The fight between Cleveland and New York will begin where things ended last year: on the glass. Like last year, the Knicks are once again one of the league's best overall rebounding teams and the second-best team overall in offensive rebounding. Mitchell Robinson leads the NBA in offensive rebounding, grabbing 5.0 second-chance opportunities per game. Not far behind Robinson are New York's Isaiah Hartenstein (2.3 per game) and Julius Randle (2.0 per game). To round things out, Donte DiVincenzo (1.0 per game) and Josh Hart (1.0 per game) are crashing the glass from the perimeter, making it even more frustrating to contain the Knicks.

Regardless, Cavs veteran big man Tristan Thompson recently shared with ClutchPoints that it's a point of emphasis in Cleveland's game plan to limit New York's greatest strength. Thompson even said that the rebounding threat Robinson and Hart possess is the biggest X-factor for the Knicks. The Cavs know it won't be easy, but, like Mobley, Thompson thinks responding to New York's physicality with their own can turn the tide.

“Of course, we’re kind of not completely healthy, so it’s not how we want to be,” said Thompson. “But it's a next man up mentality. We’ve gotta give some get-back.”

While a good portion of the game will be a battle on defense for Cleveland, they do have the firepower to compete with the Knicks compared to last year. In that first-round series, New York had an overwhelming amount of depth compared to the five or six viable players the Cavs had in their rotation. It's what led to the Cavs going after shooting threats like Max Strus and Georges Niang in the offseason. Isaac Okoro shared that Cleveland's offense stalling on the biggest stage played a factor in why the Cavs made wholesale changes to their offensive scheme, which empowers shooters like Strus to break down the defense with his movement and spacing.

Strus could be one of Cleveland's biggest X-factors in this back-to-back playoff rematch against New York. While still with the Miami Heat, Strus faced the Knicks in the second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. He was Miami's third-best scorer in that series, averaging 14.3 points per game, and was the Heat's best three-point shooting threat. Now, with the Cavs, Strus can deliver a similar dynamic and empower players like Donovan Mitchell, who admitted he didn't play well in the postseason, to finally put his childhood team and New York basketball demons to rest.

Emotions will be heightened when things begin at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and will hit a totally different level when things switch to Madison Square Garden. Okoro told ClutchPoints that the Cavs won't let the ramped-up intensity change their usual dynamic and will stick to their game plan.

The way last season ended for Cleveland was uncharacteristic of a team that had a successful season. But the pain the Cavs felt was a learning experience and, more importantly, forced them to grow up to meet the intensity of the playoffs. Once Cleveland gets through these two upcoming games against New York, they'll look back and say it was another step in an 82-game grind. But, while the Cavs are still living in the moment, they're looking for revenge on the Knicks for embarrassing them and to avenge last season's defeat. This mini-series has been circled on Cleveland's calendar for a while now and old emotions have been reawakened. The motivation is clear and the Cavs want to let the Knicks know what they're capable of.