CLEVELAND — Darius Garland scored 32 points, 26 while setting an aggressive tone for Cleveland in the first half, and the Cavaliers evened their Eastern Conference playoff series against New York at one game apiece with a 107-90 victory over the Knicks on Tuesday night.

Garland scored 15 points in the second quarter, when Cleveland tightened down defensively and dominated New York, forcing nine turnovers on the way to opening a 20-point halftime lead. The Cavs pushed their lead to 29 in the fourth.

Cleveland’s blowout ended with a hard foul.

New York was still down 23 and playing its starters when Julius Randle was hit in the air by Cavs center Jarrett Allen on a dunk with 2:22 left. Randle fell hard to the floor, and after getting up, exchanged words with several Cavs players and Coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

Caris LeVert scored 24 points off the bench and Donovan Mitchell added 17 and a career playoff-high 13 assists for the Cavs, who were much more physical than in Game 1 and went toe to toe with the Knicks.

Randle scored 22 points and Jalen Brunson added 20 for New York, which got the split it needed in rowdy Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to head home for Game 3 at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

The Cavs matched the Knicks’ physicality from the outset, winning the 50/50 balls that went to New York in the opener. And if handling Cleveland’s new-found toughness wasn’t enough of a challenge, the Knicks bashed each other.

During one sequence in the second quarter as the Cavs were beginning to pull away, Randle turned to run up the floor and accidentally smacked Brunson in the face, causing his teammate to recoil in pain.

Garland inflicted his own damage.

The 23-year-old was timid in his playoff debut, failing to take a shot in the fourth quarter and finishing with just one assist in 43 minutes on Saturday. Following practice Monday, he had a deep conversation with Mitchell, who urged his young teammate to be more forceful.

Garland got the message.

He drained a pair of 3-pointers during a 13-4 run in the second quarter and then showed no fear when he drove to the basket and tried to dunk over 7-foot Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein, who got away with goaltending while fouling Cleveland’s guard.

The Cavs’ bench erupted at seeing Garland’s bravado, and Mitchell slapped his hands before urging the sellout crowd to recognize him. The moment seemed to rattle the Knicks as New York’s Josh Hart was called for a technical foul.

NOTES

AWARD: Nobody scored more clutch points this season than De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings. And his late-game exploits helped him win the inaugural NBA clutch player of the year award.

Fox held off Miami’s Jimmy Butler and Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan for the award. They were the other two finalists. Fox led the league with 193 clutch points this season. Clutch games are defined by the NBA as those where the margin between the teams is five points or less at any point in the final five minutes.

WARRIORS: SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson pondered the Golden State Warriors’ current playoff situation and expressed some relief. In years past under the old format, the defending champions would have been on the brink of elimination trailing 2-0.

Thompson, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green have never been in the hole like this, down by two games — and this is a group that has practically seen it all over the past decade while capturing the franchise’s first championship in 40 years with the 2014-15 title and three more since, reaching the NBA Finals in a record five straight seasons from 2015-19 along the way.

But the upstart Sacramento Kings, coached by former top Warriors assistant Mike Brown, who helped Golden State accomplish so much, are coming to Chase Center on Thursday night for Game 3 of the best-of-seven first-round series with some serious momentum.

“Luckily, it’s first to four. It’s not the old format where it’s first to three,” Thompson said, “that would be not so much fun.”

The Warriors had gone 27 consecutive playoff series during the Curry era without falling behind 2-0. Steve Kerr hadn’t seen it, either, since he began coaching the team in 2014-15. Now, this group will need a mighty comeback and will perhaps have to do it without emotional leader Green after he stomped on Domantas Sabonis during the fourth quarter of Monday night’s 114-106 defeat at Golden 1 Center.

Sabonis was called for a technical foul for grabbing Green’s leg and Green received a flagrant-2 foul that led to an automatic ejection and possible discipline by the league.

Golden State has misfired from 3-point range — a team featuring three shooters with 200 or more 3-pointers in Curry, Thompson and Jordan Poole — and been sloppy taking care of the ball.

“We’ve just got to play with a little bit more IQ in terms of what we’re trying to do on both ends of the floor,” Curry said.

Only 26 of 334 teams that fell behind 2-0 have ever rallied to win in a best-of-seven series — a .078 percentage, according to Sportradar.

This also marks just the fifth time a defending champion has trailed 2-0 in a first-round series and all the others went on to lose. The 2012 Mavericks were swept by the Thunder 4-0; the 2007 Heat lost all four matchups to the Bulls; the 1984 76ers fell 3-2 to the Nets and the 1957 Philadelphia Warriors lost 2-0 to the Syracuse Nationals.

“The way our guys fought, they showed what they’re made of,” Kerr said. “So now it’s a matter of going home and licking our wounds a little bit. We get a little rest with a couple of days in between games and we go home and take care of our home court.”

And with Curry, Green and Thompson’s experience, they never count themselves out on the big stage.

This is a group that has regularly been challenged before and bounced back — even during this topsy-turvy regular season and its struggles. The Warriors dealt with injuries and Andrew Wiggins’ extended absences for a personal matter to avoid the play-in game and earn the sixth seed from the Western Conference.

“It’s unfamiliar territory, but we’ve been down 3-1. We’ve been up 3-1. We’ve been through everything. So we rely on our experience,” Thompson said. “We take a great off day and we recollect ourselves, and do what we do, and that’s play well at home — always.”

GRIZZLIES: Coach Taylor Jenkins said that two-time All-Star point guard Ja Morant suffered no ligament damage to his right hand in Memphis’ opening playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and will be a game-time decision Wednesday night for Game 2.

Morant had an MRI on Monday that showed only bruising of the tissue between the bones as the fourth-year guard aggravated an injury from April 7 when Memphis clinched the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference during a win at Milwaukee. Jenkins said Morant is dealing with pain and soreness.

BUCKS: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t practice Tuesday, but the Bucks haven’t ruled out the possibility the two-time MVP could play Wednesday in Game 2 against the Miami Heat.

An injury report released listed Antetokounmpo as doubtful.

“We have 24-plus hours before game time, so he’ll get treatment,” Bucks Coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ll see how he feels. I think there’s been a lot of progress. Hopefully there’s more in the next day or so.”

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