The Miz tried to laugh off Danhausen’s curse before Game 1, but the Cleveland Cavaliers made that confidence look dangerous by the end of the night.
The WWE superstar and Cleveland native backed his team before the Eastern Conference Finals opener, only for the Cavaliers to suffer the kind of collapse that instantly made the curse story go viral.
The New York Knicks did not just win the game. They gave wrestling and NBA fans the perfect crossover punchline.
The Miz dared Danhausen before the Cleveland Cavaliers’ collapse
WWE superstar The Miz fired back after Danhausen placed a curse on the Cleveland Cavaliers before Game 1 against the New York Knicks.
The Miz wrote, “Good thing there are no curses and tonight will prove it. Also, it’s one thing to put fake curses on me… but my team??? I will end you Danhausen.”
The confidence made sense at the time because Cleveland looked strong enough to punish the joke. The Cavaliers controlled most of the game and built a 22-point fourth-quarter lead at Madison Square Garden.
That is where the post aged brutally. New York stormed back, forced overtime, and won 115-104 after closing regulation and the extra period on a stunning 44-11 run.
For The Miz, the timing could not have been worse. His warning to Danhausen went from defiant to meme material in one disastrous Cavaliers stretch.
Danhausen curse looks real after the New York Knicks punish Cleveland Cavaliers
Danhausen’s bit became much harder to dismiss because the collapse matched the exact kind of chaos fans wanted from the storyline.
He had appeared on ESPN’s NBA Today and declared that the Cavaliers were cursed while the Knicks were safe, turning the playoff matchup into a wrestling-flavored subplot before tipoff.
Jalen Brunson then gave the joke a basketball finish. The Knicks guard scored 38 points and kept attacking late as Cleveland’s offense went cold and the Garden crowd came alive.
The Cavaliers’ final stretch was ugly enough without any supernatural explanation. Donovan Mitchell went quiet late, Cleveland stopped generating clean looks and New York dominated overtime 14-3.
Still, fans were never going to ignore the setup. Danhausen cursed Cleveland, The Miz mocked the idea, and the Cavaliers immediately blew one of the biggest leads of the postseason.
The Miz may not believe in curses, but Game 1 gave Danhausen all the evidence he needed. Cleveland now has to respond before the joke becomes the story of the series.
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