Knicks Blown Out By Heat Behind James, Wade
Post Game Recap
The Knicks came into the game with the best winning
percentage against the Heat since the start of last season and left with it
dropping a little bit. The Knicks were handled rather easily tonight by the
two-time defending champs, getting blown out 108-82. It was tough to watch at
points if you are a Knicks fan and it reached a low when they actually went
away from the game for a bit in the fourth quarter to watch the end of a the
triple-overtime thriller between the Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors. If
the season hadn’t hit a low point yet, having a game switched over to a less
than marquee match up like that should do it. The Knicks will be back at it
again tomorrow night at Madison Square
Garden
-Player of the Game: Carmelo Anthony
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| Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports |
As it has been too often this season, Anthony looked to be
one of the few Knicks to come in and try tonight. Anthony tried once again to
put the team on his back tonight but he was unable to do it alone against one
of the best teams in the NBA. Tonight Anthony finished with 29 points on 11-20
from the field, including 3-8 from the three point line and 4-6 from the foul
line. He also added seven rebounds, two assists and one resounding block of
LeBron James. He also had another highlight play with a dunk over James early
on in the game. It was another efficient scoring night that has gone to waste
as the Knicks got blown out.
-Positives
Tyson Chandler was the only other Knicks to have any real
positive impact on the game. Chandler
dominated a mostly undersized Heat team, terrorizing them on the interior while
on the court. Chandler finished
with 19 points on 6-9 from the field and a solid 7-8 from the foul line to go
with 16 rebounds. Chandler made a
living in the paint and caused some problems for the Heat rolling to the basket
for alley-oop dunks and keeping plenty of possessions alive with six offensive
rebounds. He joined Anthony as the only player to really show up tonight with
some effort.
It is hard to believe but the Knicks were actually the
aggressors for a lot of the game. They got at it on the offensive glass,
grabbing 14 offensive rebounds for the game. They also got out some in
transition, scoring 14 fast break points. They even got to the foul line more
than the Heat, attempting 22 and knocking down 16 compared to 12-18 for Miami .
-Negatives
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| Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports |
The Knicks offense was listless outside of Anthony and Chandler .
No one else shot 50 percent from the field and as a team the Knicks were able
to only hit 37.3 percent of their shots. It got even worse the further away
they got from the basket, as they made only 4-23 attempts from beyond the three
point line, good for a putrid 17.4 percent.
The Knicks matched their poor offense with an equally as
poor performance on the defensive end. The Heat ran their offense without much
of a problem as the Knicks kind of let them do whatever they pleased on the
offensive end. The Heat finished the game shooting 60.8 percent overall and 40
percent from the three point line. The Knicks had no answer for LeBron James
and Dwyane Wade, who scored 31 and 23 points respectively, combining to go
23-32 from the field.
Tim Hardaway Jr. had quite possibly his worst NBA game to date.
He couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat in the ocean, going 2-15 from
the field and missing all eight of his three pointers. He also was taught a
lesson defensively by Wade, who worked him throughout the night. Wade brought
out his whole arsenal on the Knick rookie, whose offensive woes were augmented
with the problems Wade caused him on the defensive end. He would finish the
game with an extremely ugly -35 on the night.
Hardaway Jr. cannot be blamed solely though for what
happened tonight to him defensively. The culprit is Mike Woodson, who asked
Hardaway Jr. to guard Wade in the first place. It is no secret that Hardaway
Jr.'s defense is not up to par defensively, so having him defend an All-Star
and future Hall of Famer in Wade when he struggles to guard fringe rotation
players makes little sense. Woodson also paired him for long stretches on the
court with Amar’e Stoudemire, who has his own defensive deficiencies as well.
When he saw things getting bad he let them get out of hand without making a
move. Woodson also made head scratching moves by taking Jeremy Tyler out of the
rotation and essentially shortening it to only seven players. He also played
Shannon Brown as the third player off the bench, a player the Knicks signed
Wednesday. Woodson seems to pick his rotations for the night out of a hat
instead of how players perform.
