Knicks' shooting goes cold in loss to Heat
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade (3) drives around New York Knicks guard Langston Galloway (2) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Nov. 23, 2015, in Miami. Credit: AP / Alan Diaz
The Heat was impressed with Kristaps Porzingis, enough for Dwyane Wade to say he's someone you have to plan for when you play the Knicks.
Miami appeared to frustrate Porzingis in the early going in Monday night's game, and the rookie was upset with himself for missing as many shots as he did.
He came on late and produced his third double-double in four games, but it wasn't nearly enough. The Knicks played a first half reminiscent of last season and had their winning streak snapped at four games with a 95-78 loss to the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat took control with a 29-4 run over the first and second quarters, and the Knicks never really challenged after that. They trailed by 26 points in the third quarter and by double figures in the last 33:47 and never got their deficit under 12 in the second half in the third game of this four-game trip, which ends Wednesday night in Orlando.
"Our activity level wasn't high to start," Derek Fisher said. "Playing from behind for as long as we were is tough to do. We made it too hard for ourselves."
Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks (8-7) with 21 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals but missed all five of his three-point tries.
Porzingis finished with 20 points, 15 in the second half, and grabbed 14 rebounds. It was his second straight game of at least 20 points and 10 rebounds and the third time in four games that he accomplished that. But he was hard on himself for shooting 7-for-18.
"It wasn't a good day for me or for the team," Porzingis said. "We couldn't find our rhythm, we couldn't make shots. I got numbers, but at important moments, I missed a lot of shots."
Wade and Chris Bosh each scored 16 for Miami (9-4). Hassan Whiteside added 11 points and 11 rebounds, blocked five shots and altered many others.
The Heat is a good defensive team and has been known to slow down some phenoms. It completely shut down Jeremy Lin during the height of Linsanity in 2012. Many of the faces are different now, but the Heat was very aware of Porzingis.
Bosh said part of the reason Porzingis has had such a good start is that teams are not paying enough attention to him. "I think he deserves the attention," Bosh said. "Most of what I see on film is just guys not paying attention to him. He can play basketball."
Porzingis hit a wide-open three-pointer 20 seconds in but didn't make his next basket until 10:33 remained in the second quarter. He started 2-for-8.
"I still got open shots," he said. "In the paint, I was missing a lot of hook shots and shots close to the basket. On the inside, I was missing a lot. [On] three-pointers, I was feeling OK. My stroke was fine. I was just missing a lot. The whole team, we missed a lot of shots."
The Knicks led 17-13 with 5:46 left in the first quarter. In the next 11:55, however, they shot 2-for-18 and were outscored 29-4.
As bad as the Knicks were offensively (they shot 32 percent and got only 10 points from their usually reliable bench), they were even worse defensively and trailed 52-30 at halftime.
They cut a 26-point deficit to 17 to start the fourth and were within 73-61 in the opening minute of the quarter. With a chance to get the game to single digits for the first time since early in the second quarter, Anthony misfired on a three-pointer. Miami then scored seven unanswered and went ahead 80-61 with 9:05 remaining.
Anthony missed another three with the score 80-67. The closest the Knicks got after that was after a Porzingis' three made it 86-74 with 2:48 to go. They intentionally hacked Whiteside, who was shooting 54 percent from the line, and he made four consecutive free throws to make it 90-74 with 2:24 left.
"We've been feeling pretty confident in the way we've been playing as a team," Anthony said. "For tonight to end up like this -- or the start of the game to start like that -- I don't want to say we took a step back, but we kind of let our foot off the gas a little bit."
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
