CLEVELAND — The deeper and tougher Knicks had little trouble overpowering and vanquishing the Cavaliers in the end, even with negligible contributions for most of the first round from their lone All-Star.

One game after Julius Randle had been benched for the entire fourth quarter of Sunday’s win at Madison Square Garden, he reinjured his left ankle late in the second quarter and didn’t play in the second half.

And Tom Thibodeau’s gritty squad absorbed every punch once more and prevailed yet again.

Jalen Brunson finished with a team-high 23 points and Obi Toppin filled in ably for Randle in the second half as the Knicks dispatched the Cavs in five games, finishing them off without their leading scorer for the final two quarters of a series-sealing 106-95 victory Wednesday night at a silenced Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Thibodeau and the Knicks deservedly will make the franchise’s first trip to the second round of the playoffs since 2013 and only their second since 2000.

The next series possibly will start as soon as Sunday at the Garden, depending on the result of the first-round matchup between the No.8 Heat and the top-seeded Bucks, who were facing elimination and a 3-1 hole later Wednesday night in Milwaukee.

RJ Barrett capped a strong final three games of the series with 21 points on 7-for-13 shooting, and Josh Hart started in place of Quentin Grimes again and registered 12 rebounds in 47 heartbeat minutes, including the entire second half.

Sixth Man runner-up Immanuel Quickley also snapped out of his series-long scoring slump with 19 points off the bench, and Toppin netted all of his 12 in the third quarter with Randle sidelined, contributing two 3-pointers and a couple of rim-rattling dunks.

Mitchell Robinson also completed a dominant series against overmatched Cleveland bigs Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley with 13 points and 18 rebounds, including an astonishing 11 more on the offensive glass, plus two deflating put-back dunks late in the fourth quarter

All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell scored 28 points for the Cavs, but the Westchester product was knocked out by his hometown team after the Knicks were unable to obtain him from the Jazz last summer.

Randle had 13 points before departing just before the end of the second quarter after reinjuring the sprained left ankle that had kept him out of the final five games of the regular season.