Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Miami Heat 7:30 3/21/2018 [Game #72]

MIAMI -- The Miami Heat are coming off an incredible double-overtime win in which they set a franchise record by scoring 149 points, and now they face a team that has only recently shown signs of life after nine straight defeats.

The host Heat (38-33) and the New York Knicks (26-45), who will meet Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena, were once bitter rivals. But this is the fifth straight season the Knicks have missed the playoffs. In fact, they have won only one playoff series in the past 18 years.

Miami is NBA royalty by comparison, winning five conference championships and three NBA titles in the past dozen years.

New York, which lost star forward Kristaps Porzingis to season-ending surgery after suffering a knee injury Feb. 6, has little to interest its own fans at this point, beside the 2018 NBA Draft.

Knicks players, however, are still trying, which explains their two straight wins, over the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday and the Chicago Bulls on Monday.

"Do you want us to go out there and look like bums?" Knicks point guard Trey Burke told the New York Post earlier this week. "They may say we already look like bums. But it's not in my DNA to go out and lose. I don't know how to do that."

Then again, this mini win streak happened at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks will now go on the road, where they are 8-28 this season.

That should leave the Heat very confident for Wednesday's game. In addition, Miami is 21-13 at home this season, and -- assuming they get enough rest after their epic 149-141 win over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night -- they shouldn't have much trouble against New York.

After all, the Knicks are 3-13 since Porzingis got hurt, and their three wins during that span came against teams that are a combined 62 games under .500.

Heat forward James Johnson scored a career-high 31 points in the wild win over Denver, earning praise from Miami coach Erik Spoelstra.

The Heat, meanwhile, have won two of its past three games, and each has been supremely close. Of those three, two of them required a total of three overtimes and the other was decided by one point.

"What a grind," Spoelstra told The Miami Herald. "We've been in more of these (close games) than most teams, and we feel we are getting tougher in these situations."

The Heat is still missing starting center Hassan Whiteside and key reserve shooting guard Dwyane Wade. Whiteside has missed five straight games because of pain in his left hip. Wade has missed four straight games with a left hamstring injury.

Beside Porzingis, the Knicks missed forward Lance Thomas on Monday as he has skipped two straight games for unspecified personal reasons.

Even so, the Knicks grabbed a season-high 61 rebounds against the Bulls in a 110-92 victory. Knicks center Enes Kanter grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds in 18 minutes as the Knicks were plus-13 on the boards.

Rebounds are all about effort, and that proves the Knicks aren't trying to lose. Knicks backup center Kyle O'Quinn, who grabbed nine rebounds, said, in essence, that he doesn't believe in so-called tanking.

"I don't think you can get five guys out on the court," O'Quinn said, "and tell them to lose as professionals."

(CBSSports / STATS)

do i hear/smell 3 in a row...

Beasley ON FIrE.

Thanks for the Game-Thread Rady ..... this would have been a nice game to watch if Hornacek would have played a 2 unit rotation vs the Heat

We got blown out... again. Exactly why it pissed me off beating CHI. Why are we playing the vets? Why, why?

Anyway... let?s make a run at 5!

never have i seen the heat's arena so empty... it looked well under 1/2 full....

paris401 said:

never have i seen the heat's arena so empty... it looked well under 1/2 full....

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They've had problems putting people in the seats since the big 3 got broken up but believe it or not the game was sold out like it usually is, corporate season ticket holders just leaving their seats unused, I would think. You would think there would be more interest in coming out to the games since they're a playoff team.

paris401 said:

never have i seen the heat's arena so empty... it looked well under 1/2 full....

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And there?s the other problem with the tank. Miami has a tough time supporting teams because it?s a warm weather city with lots of activities and transplants. Plenty of New Yorkers I?m sure , but who in there right mind would pay to see Isiah Hicks and Luke Kornet play in a Knicks uniform. Even if you can score cheap tickets, parking, beers, and other concessions are full price. It?s easy come on KO.com and bloviate on about how great tanking is for the franchise,but when the rubber meets the road it?s bad for business.

mafra said:

We got blown out... again. Exactly why it pissed me off beating CHI. Why are we playing the vets? Why, why?

Anyway... let?s make a run at 5!

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CLEE had 5 points in 19 minutes so that is one vet that is safe to play and still be tanking

Y?know things have gotten bad when Tig doesn?t even see the point of posting the box score in the game thread anymore.

Among our currently healthy players, I continue to really like Enes Kanter and Trey Burke and not much else about our team. Guys like Ntilikina and Dotson need to be re-assessed in year 2 under a better coaching staff.

Yep poor Frank is a man without a position so far handle to poor to be a 1 and not a good enough shooter to be 2 at least not yet. Pjax really screwed the pooch on last years ?lottery? pick

jimkcchief88 said:

who in there right mind would pay to see Isiah Hicks and Luke Kornet play in a Knicks uniform. Even if you can score cheap tickets, parking, beers, and other concessions are full price. It’s easy come on KO.com and bloviate on about how great tanking is for the franchise,but when the rubber meets the road it’s bad for business.

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u r rite about cheap tickets... the last year the nets were in jersey my buddy bought tickets day of the game (not sure who against) - they were 5 bucks... 5bucks... yes they were in the nose bleed section, but by the start of the 2nd half he was 20rows from courtside...

paris401 said:

u r rite about cheap tickets... the last year the nets were in jersey my buddy bought tickets day of the game (not sure who against) - they were 5 bucks... 5bucks... yes they were in the nose bleed section, but by the start of the 2nd half he was 20rows from courtside...

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That is the good flip side of tanking teams, CHEAP TIX!!! 5 bucks for any NBA game sign me up. I got cheap tickets for years in Wrigley while the Cubs were awful...I got box seats 4/2 Cardinals/Brewers coming for under $20 bucks a ticket. And the Crew play in a retractable dome which will more than likely be closed due to cold so the weather will be perfect. There will be a gang of Cards fans there I?m sure

jimkcchief88 said:

And there?s the other problem with the tank. Miami has a tough time supporting teams because it?s a warm weather city with lots of activities and transplants. Plenty of New Yorkers I?m sure , but who in there right mind would pay to see Isiah Hicks and Luke Kornet play in a Knicks uniform. Even if you can score cheap tickets, parking, beers, and other concessions are full price. It?s easy come on KO.com and bloviate on about how great tanking is for the franchise,but when the rubber meets the road it?s bad for business.

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Knicks have been worse than tanking for almost 2 decades and are still ranked as the most valuable NBA franchise, according to Forbes.

Last night, NYK played Hardaway, Kanter, Beasley for heavy minutes. Not sure why you feel NY is tanking? The team just sucks, partly bc they refuse to rebuild.

What?s bad for the sport is CHI not playing all their good young players, when they are playing playoff teams jostling for playoff positioning and home court advantage. This mocks real Competitiveness and must piss off teams trailing their opponents in the standings by a game or two.

jimkcchief88 said:

Yep poor Frank is a man without a position so far handle to poor to be a 1 and not a good enough shooter to be 2 at least not yet. Pjax really screwed the pooch on last years ?lottery? pick

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I'm still wondering how a HOF coach Pjax could put together one of the top 3 worst coaching-staff in the past 4 seasons in the NBA .... a 17 win season .. a 32 win season .. then a 31 win season .. and now in the 4th season we have a 26-46 record with 10 games remaining in the season.
Head coach Hornacek has DNP the Knicks most reliable PG Jack the past 3 weeks when PG Jack should be on the court mentoring Frank Knits and Mudiay in a lineup.
Our SG CLee and SG Tim's poor-poor effort performance the past 4 weeks needed to be the ones DNP the past 3 weeks so PG Jack and PG Burke could have lead the point in the rotation having Mudiay n Frank at the SG position to keep ball movement on offense n putting pressure on the passing lane on defense.
All season we needed Beasley as our wing SF on offense to score on the perimeter plus drive through the lane for layups .. it's nice to have a 2 way hustling wing SF Troy Williams come off the bench to pick up the slack at SF to help bring energy off the bench to co-exist in a bench lineup having Frank Burke Hinks and Quinn.
While having a starter lineup of Jack Mudiay Beasley Kornet and Kanter.

So far the Knicks signing of CLee and Tim Hardaway Jr are worst than the signing of MIA Noah !!!

htr10 said:

Y’know things have gotten bad when Tig doesn’t even see the point of posting the box score in the game thread anymore.

Among our currently healthy players, I continue to really like Enes Kanter and Trey Burke and not much else about our team. Guys like Ntilikina and Dotson need to be re-assessed in year 2 under a better coaching staff.

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Hate to say it but I caught the TOR/Cavs game instead of the Knicks game. Cavs looked good coming back after being down double digits to beat the Raps last night. They may be in playoff mode with KLove back in the lineup. Lot of talk about this is the best bball Lebron has played in his entire career and he does look awesome, the Cavs may ride him into the NBA finals again he looks that good. Looks like a Raps/Cavs EC finals to me. Raps have a shot with that second unit, Casey really trusts that group playing them against the Cavs starters for much of the game.

Kiyaman said:

I'm still wondering how a HOF coach Pjax could put together one of the top 3 worst coaching-staff in the past 4 seasons in the NBA .... a 17 win season .. a 32 win season .. then a 31 win season .. and now in the 4th season we have a 26-46 record with 10 games remaining in the season.
Head coach Hornacek has DNP the Knicks most reliable PG Jack the past 3 weeks when PG Jack should be on the court mentoring Frank Knits and Mudiay in a lineup.
Our SG CLee and SG Tim's poor-poor effort performance the past 4 weeks needed to be the ones DNP the past 3 weeks so PG Jack and PG Burke could have lead the point in the rotation having Mudiay n Frank at the SG position to keep ball movement on offense n putting pressure on the passing lane on defense.
All season we needed Beasley as our wing SF on offense to score on the perimeter plus drive through the lane for layups .. it's nice to have a 2 way hustling wing SF Troy Williams come off the bench to pick up the slack at SF to help bring energy off the bench to co-exist in a bench lineup having Frank Burke Hinks and Quinn.
While having a starter lineup of Jack Mudiay Beasley Kornet and Kanter.

So far the Knicks signing of CLee and Tim Hardaway Jr are worst than the signing of MIA Noah !!!

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Look how bad Charlotte has been with HOF/GOAT Micheal Jordan as owner. The skills don?t translate. Phil just had to manage egos in CHI/LA. Phil never had to build a team and select a coach. Fail-Jackson merely rode the coatails of some of the greatest players of all-time in MJ,Scotty,Kobe,Shaq... Now you know why Fail-Jax and Jerry Krause didn?t get along. Organizations win championships is what Kraus said and he was right. Take my STL Cardinals. That?s a championship organization. Never in my lifetime have they ?tanked? away 4-5 years like the Cubs/Astros to win championships and we got 11 of them. The flip side is my KC Chiefs that haven?t won since 1970 like the Knicks. We just dumped an all-pro CB because he didn?t stand for the national anthem and he was a ?cancer.? Sound familiar????

Yeah, I couldn?t believe they dealt Marcus Peters. Fortunately for KC, they have a solid brain trust who?re drafting gems in the early rounds. And Pat Mahomes looks legit.

Cardinals and Yanks both rebuilt on the fly, while competing every season. They are the role models for how it should be done.

Knicks are just horrible bc Dolan creates a toxic environment at MSG. It?s sad!

Kiyaman said:

I'm still wondering how a HOF coach Pjax could put together one of the top 3 worst coaching-staff in the past 4 seasons in the NBA

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HOF means 'dick' a HOF coach does not mean a great GM, just as a HOF player (MJ) does not equate to a great owner... how the hell does MJ pick that Caucasian Adam morrison from gonzaga , or kwame brown...

tiger0330 said:

Hate to say it but I caught the TOR/Cavs game instead of the Knicks game. Cavs looked good coming back after being down double digits to beat the Raps last night. They may be in playoff mode with KLove back in the lineup. Lot of talk about this is the best bball Lebron has played in his entire career and he does look awesome, the Cavs may ride him into the NBA finals again he looks that good. Looks like a Raps/Cavs EC finals to me. Raps have a shot with that second unit, Casey really trusts that group playing them against the Cavs starters for much of the game.

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I watched all of 2nd half of the TOR/Cavs game .. Great 2nd half come back by Cavs after a halftime score 79-64 ..
Love gives a healthy Cavs team the winning performance to make it to the ECF ....
The Raptor's 2nd unit bench has the energy hustle n depth to win a 7 game series in the ECF