Knicks Find Towns, Threes In Win Over Heat

The New York Knicks' headliners performed as advertised en route to a comeback victory over the Miami Heat.

Oct 30, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) shoots the basketball over New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the first quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

There was finally truth in advertising for the New York Knicks on Wednesday night in South Beach.

The new-look Knicks lived up to the reputation they garnered this offseason, as headliners old and new paved the way to a 116-107 victory over the Miami Heat that saw them overcome a deficit that reached as high as 13. Wednesday marked the opener of a four-game road trip, the Knicks' first lengthy stretch away from Madison Square Garden this season.

Playing in front of a vocal, pro-New York crowd at Kaseya Center, the Knicks (2-2) made things right against an old enemy: having put up only 27 shots total over his first three showings as a Manhattanite, Towns put up 24, sinking 17 en route to a 44-point showing. Towns' scoring, the third-best by any player in this very young NBA season (six short of Paolo Banchero's 50 for Orlando on Monday), also earned his third straight double-double with 13 rebounds.

Towns earned a dozen of that tally off four three-pointers, which proved contagious: dead-last in three-point tries entering Wednesday's game, each of the Knicks' five starters sank at least two, with Mikal Bridges tying Towns with a quartet. The Knicks were 18-of-40 overall with Miles McBride adding a pair off the bench.

Oct 30, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier (2) drives to the basket against New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the fourth quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Elsewhere, Jalen Brunson posted a season-best nine assists after expressing frustration that he wasn't able to feed Towns during his early inactivity. Brunson also scored 22 points, hitting half of his last 10 after going 1-of-8 in the first two-plus periods. Josh Hart joined Towns in the double-double brotherhood for the third straight game, hauling in a game-best 14 rebounds next to 10 points while OG Anunoby rounded out the starters' success with 11 points while playing his sterling brand of defense.

It was clear from the get-go that experience and outside shooting would play prominent factors in Wednesday's game: Towns scored 12 of the Knicks' 26 points in the opening period but Tyler Herro countered with 14 of his own en route to Miami's 32-26 lead at the end of the period. The Knicks kept the deficit even by halftime but the Heat supporters, fighting the metropolitan invasion, made their voices heard when back-to-back triples from Herro and Nikola Jovic created a 70-57 advantage just before four minutes went by in the third.

From there, however, the Knicks tipped off a 30-10 run over the last eight and never surrendered the acquired lead. The Knicks made no effort to hide their relishing of the three-pointer's return, hitting six in that span to create the game-changing advantage. The Heat (2-2) never got it down to a single possession after that and their slice down to four was snuffled out by one last 9-1 tally capped off by a Towns triple that put the Knicks up 12 in the penultimate minute.

Herro led the Heat with 34 points primarily built on his eight triples, but the Heat's headliners were held in check: Jimmy Butler shot only nine (though he hit six) and lost four turnovers while Bam Adebayo was held to just three rebounds. This season's latter two meetings between the Knicks and Heat will be staged in March, with the first returning to South Florida on the 2nd.

In the meantime, the Knicks' road trip continues on Friday night when they face the Detroit Pistons (7 p.m. ET, MSG).

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