The Knicks had beaten the Heat twice already this season, so coming into this one in New York, one would have guessed that Miami would have it dialed in from the very start.
It didn’t exactly turn out that way, as the Heat trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half. But by the time it was over, Miami had earned its 14th straight victory with a 99-93 win, courtesy of yet another dominant performance from LeBron James.
James finished with 29 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists, but it was Carmelo Anthony who started off hot and helped the Knicks take control early.
Anthony had 17 first quarter points, and scored them on just five shots. He was active and aggressive in getting to the free throw line, but didn’t get the help he needed for the Knicks to gain any separation. His teammates were just 2-11 from the field in the opening period, so the Knicks lead was just a single point when it was finished.
Miami struggled early by turning the ball over and couldn’t really find any flow in its offense. James was active from the start, and finished a couple of monster alley-oop dunks at the rim, but his outside shot wasn’t falling just yet.
The second quarter was a work of perfection by the Knicks, and the way they shared the ball and hit open shots from seemingly everywhere allowed them to blow the game open, if only temporarily. Jason Kidd, fresh off of being removed from the starting lineup for his recent stretch of dismal shooting, came out on fire in the second, hitting his first four attempts from three-point distance to help his team increase the lead.
New York’s ball movement was insane in the second, as it consistently whipped around the perimeter until it landed in the open man’s hands. Thanks to the passing and the clean looks that it created, the Knicks made 14 of their 19 shots in the period, including 5-of-9 from three-point distance, for a blistering shooting mark of 73.7 percent.
It’s possible the Heat simply aren’t a morning team, but they seemed to collectively wake up after halftime.
The sense of urgency on the defensive end of the floor was evident once the third quarter began, and Miami cut the Knicks’ lead down to four a little more than five minutes in. The Knicks briefly ran it back up to 11, capped off by a three-pointer from J.R. Smith, which was one of only two shots he made out of 11 second half attempts. The Heat cut it to four once again by the end of the third, thanks to a three-pointer from Shane Battier that went down just before the buzzer.
The game was tight the rest of the way, and James was the difference. He defended Anthony the majority of the second half, and helped hold him to 3-11 shooting over the final two periods; after Anthony had gotten loose for 24 points on just eight shots in the first half, he finished with 32.
The back-to-back threes that James knocked down pulled the Heat even at 79 with 10 minutes to play, and his overall effort the rest of the way helped bring it home.
James sealed the victory with a steal and an uncontested one-man fast break that he finished with a powerful slam dunk, before stopping briefly to pose for the New York crowd in attendance.
On the Knicks side, in addition to what Kidd gave them offensively, they got an above average performance out of Amar’e Stoudemire, who was active and converted a couple of big plays inside. Tyson Chandler has seen better games, especially defensively, and Smith’s dismal shooting seemed to come at the worst possible time.
The game was close, however, until LeBron took over — both with his defensive effort on Anthony, as well as with his fourth quarter performance that netted him 12 points, five rebounds, three assists, a steal, and a blocked shot over the game’s final 12 minutes.
