Knicks overcome by Heat on big stage
Knicks guard Josh Hart, left, and center Isaiah Hartenstein look on during the closing minutes of Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Heat on Monday in Miami. Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky
MIAMI
You need to give more.
If you want to be big time, you have to play big time. You have to take control of games like Patrick Ewing and John Starks used to. You can’t have another off game. You simply have to say I refuse to lose.
That was the message being sent loud and clear to Knicks stars Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson Monday, moments before they stepped on the court for the most important game of their careers.
“Your stars got to be stars,’ Charles Barkley said in his pregame analysis on TNT. “It’s got to be Randle and Brunson.”
Randle and Brunson weren’t enough Monday night to stop a scrappy, physical and driven Heat from defeating the Knicks, 109-101, to take a 3-1 lead in their second-round series. The Knicks now face an elimination game at the Garden on Wednesday.
What hurt so much about this loss is the Heat beat the Knicks at their own game. They dove for loose balls. They forced timely turnovers. They kept possessions alive by getting timely offensive rebound after timely offense rebound.
It was the style of play the Knicks used in the first round to beat Cleveland in five games. Julius Randle made it clear afterward that it didn’t feel good to have the tables turned and lose to a team that outhustled them.
“Just maybe they want it more. I don’t know,” Randle said. “That’s been who we are all year. We got to find a way to step up and make those plays. Keep this season alive.”
Randle, who struggled mightily in the Knicks Game 3 loss, had a more respectable showing before fouling out with a little more than three minutes left. Randle finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and made his presence felt in the paint. But he hurt the Knicks by turning the ball over five times
Brunson led the Knicks with 32 points, 11 assists and just one turnover. He had to labor for every one of those points, however, as the Heat seemed to throw every defense known to man at him.
The weird thing is, if you had told Knicks fans in September that their team would finish with the fifth-best record in the East, bulldoze Cleveland out of the first round, they would have been downright giddy. After all, it had been a decade since the Knicks had gotten this far in the playoffs.
Sometimes, however, goalposts get moved. Expectations for this Knicks team shifted dramatically when the Heat, a play-in team, knocked off the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. Greed set in. Suddenly there was a clear path for the Knicks to get to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Well, I think we can safely say that his Miami Heat team is no play-in team.
The Heat have one of the most dynamic and dependable players in Jimmy Butler, who really didn’t look like he was playing with a sore ankle despite the fact his availability wasn’t announced until shortly before game time. The Heat also have a bunch of versatile role players who can outwork anyone.
Despite being close, you kind of surmised the game was over in the fourth quarter when the Heat grabbed offensive rebound after offensive rebound. There was one possession where it almost seemed as if the Heat were on a power play, just slapping up shot after shot and waiting for one to go in. All told, the Heat had seven of their 13 offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter.
“We have to get a body on people,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “They are shooting long, we’re running in and balls are going over our head.”
The hardest thing for many Knicks fans watching the game was that the Heat seemed to be outworking the Knicks, a team that prides itself on its work ethic and hustle. Now, they head back to New York hoping to eke out one win.
“You got to win four to win a series,” Thibodeau said. “All we are thinking about is winning the next game. We got to win one quarter, then the next quarter, then the next quarter, then the next.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
