The The Knicks defeated the Miami Heat 122-120 on Friday night for their eighth straight victory thanks to Julius Randle game-winning 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left.
New York let a 17-point lead slip away in the second half, but Randle, who finished with 43 points on 16-for-25 shooting (8-for-13 from three) with nine rebounds and three assists, was not denied. . .
Here’s what you can take away…
– About possession at the beginning of the game, Randle and the Heat Bam Adebayo, one of the league’s best defenders, bumped into each other for position. But while the first meeting between the two big men resulted in a stalemate before Randle missed a 25-foot layup, Randle won the battle as he scored 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting (4-for-6 from behind). onion) in the opening period. On the other hand, Adebayo scored just two points on 1-for-5 shooting with just one rebound.
– While the game was in rhythm with both teams looking to quickly gain the court, the flow of the quarter soon stopped with both teams living at the line: the Knicks went 7-for-11 and the Heat 9-for-10, with Jimmy Butler making seven of his eight attempts.
But the tide of the game would soon turn in the visitors’ favor, as the Heat’s inability to make rebounds led to the Knicks closing the opening stretch with a 16-5 run over the final four minutes to take a 37-30 lead.
– And that fast rhythm of the game continued at the beginning of the second quarter Immanuel Quickley knocking down a pair of three-pointers that led to an Erik Spoelstra break. Quickley would score the Knicks’ first 10 points of the quarter. Barrett would go on a similar scoring streak, making four straight baskets to give New York a 15-point lead and force another Spoelstra timeout with just under six minutes left in the half.
After holding the Heat from the free throw line for the first eight minutes of the second quarter, Butler made five straight shots at the line (including a technical free throw after Josh Hart is whistled) and Miami cut the lead to under 10. But the Knicks had answers in the form of another 5-0 run by Randle in the form of a driving layup before knocking down another three over an outstretched Adebayor from the right elbow-wide spot on the floor.
– New York shot 26-for-41 (63.4 percent) from the floor and 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) from behind the arc in the first half and held Miami to 40 percent from the floor for a 71-56 lead.
– After being held to just four points in the first half, Adebayo woke up after halftime, scoring 10 points in the first three minutes as part of a 12-2 run that cut the Knicks’ lead to 73-66. The Heat continued to punish the Knicks inside with Adebayo and Butler, and outside with Tyler Herro and Kevin Love connecting from deep to cut the lead to just five, Randle answered the gain with a 3-pointer, then found Brunson for a corner 3-pointer to put the Knicks back up 11 with just under five left in the quarter.
The Heat’s defense held firm, holding the Knicks to 10-for-22 from the floor and 4-for-13 from three, and they found their shooting touch and outscored New York 32-25 in the third, but the Knicks went into the fourth with an eight-point lead. . .
– Caleb Martin cut New York’s lead to three two minutes into the fourth, but Quickley responded with an 8-3 Spurs run by himself, knocking down a pair of big 3-pointers. But the Heat took the lead with 5:45 left when Martin’s 3-pointer capped a 9-0 run, but Brunson answered with a floater before a controversial offside call on Love led to Mitchell Robinson dunk, his first points of the game, to put the Knicks back up by three.
Butler collected his sixth offensive rebound and made a layup for his 33rd point of the game to make it 116 with 1:04 to play to force a Knicks timeout. But the Knicks had an answer, Randle took the inbounds and went to work on Abeday before hitting a 14-foot fadeaway from the baseline to make it -1.
Down two at the line from Herro after a Quickley foul, Randle went from hero to scapegoat by dribbling under pressure and allowing Herro to steal and score a layup that put the Heat up 120-119 with 23 seconds to play.
But Randle would ultimately be the real hero on Friday night. After fumbling the ball and nearly turning it over again as Butler reached, he was able to get his feet up and hit a 26-footer from that same outstretched right elbow over Herro to give the Knicks a 122-120 victory.
– Efficiency was the name of the Knicks’ other leading scorers, with Brunson finishing with 25 points on 9-for-14 shooting, Barrett scoring 17 on 8-for-15 shooting and Quickley adding 21 off the bench on 7- for-11. shooting.
– From the bench, Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein they combined for just nine points and committed seven fouls, but the two added 11 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. In 33 minutes Hart had plus-16, and in 15 minutes Hartentstein had plus-22.
– This is New York’s second streak of eight victories this season. The last time a Knicks team had two eight-game winning streaks in a season? 1972-73, when they won the title for the last time in the same season, according to SNY’s Ian Begley.
-In the third quarter, Robinson appeared holding his right knee after blocking Butler, remaining in the game but limping slightly. Minutes later, after contesting another missed layup by Butler, Brunson went down hard and stayed under the Knicks’ basket on the ensuing possession. Brunson would return in the fourth after rolling his ankle during a trip to the locker room.
-It was the second straight game in which the Knicks scored at least 70 points in the first half, the first time they had done so since November 18 and 19, 1988, both games against Philadelphia. Coincidentally, it was the first time the Heat allowed at least 70 points in the first half in back-to-back games in their 35 seasons, after also allowing 71 points in the first half against Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Accents
What’s next
The Knicks wrap up a two-game homestand Sunday night in Boston against the Celtics with tipoff at 7:30 p.m.