Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Burned in the 3rd: Knicks Drop Game 1 vs. Heat
The latter 24 minutes of the New York Knicks' first conference semifinal game at Madison Square Garden since 2013 were anything but a (South) Beach for the hosts on Sunday afternoon.
New York let a strong start go to waste, watching a lead that reached as high as a dozen devolve into a 108-101 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 1 of their second-round NBA playoff series.
Much like their last playoff showcase at the Garden last weekend, the penultimate win of their five-game quarterfinal series victory over Cleveland, the Knicks came out of the halftime break rather lethargic: Miami needed just a little over five minutes to fully flip an eight-point deficit, embarking on a 21-5 run built primarily through outlet passes and deep ballsthat surely impressed newly-minted New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, one of many celebrities on hand to witness the Knicks' return to the second round. Miami wound up winning the period 31-20, building the foundation for their success from there on out.
Alas for those gathered at MSG, there was no comeback from the early second-half doldrums this time around: the Knicks shot just over 39 percent in the second half which allowed Miami to inflate its lead to as high as 11 in the final frame.
Even after a late right ankle injury that rendered him mostly immobile for the final five minutes, Jimmy Butler kept his torrid playoff pace rolling with a 25-point, 11-rebound double-double, which was enough to render another strong collaborative scoring effort from RJ Barrett (24) and Jalen Brunson (23) null-and-void. Despite the two's high-scoring antics, they were not immune to the Knicks' brutal struggles from three-point range: starters Barrett, Brunson, and Josh Hart were a combined 1-of-16 from deep, part of a 21 percent success rate on the day (7-of-34).
Brunson and Hart's fellow Villanova alum Kyle Lowry had 17 points off the bench for Miami (a team-best nine in the fourth quarter), which is seeking to become the first No. 8 seed to advance to the conference final round since the 1999 Knicks (who beat a top-seeded Miami team en route to the NBA Finals).
Nostalgics will play a big role in this series, as the two semifinalists are well-known for their five previous postseason meetings, all but one held in a four-year stretch (1997-2000). Sunday's opener was held on the 25th anniversary of the infamous fourth game of the 1998 opening round, which hosted an MSG-based brawl ignited by former teammates Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning.
The Knicks have emulated their predecessors of Miami battles past with strong physical and defensive efforts but the modern Heat matched their intensity every step of the way on Sunday.
After gaining some early paint penetration (building a 32-21 lead after the first with 22 points in the paint), the Knicks resorted to desperation from outside with only Toppin (4-of-11 from three-point range) coming remotely close to gaining any lasting momentum from deep once control slipped from their grasp. In addition to the backcourt pair of Brunson and Barrett's scoring going for naught, the Knicks likewise wasted more interior mastery from Mitchell Robinson, who tallied 14 rebounds (five offensive).
Miami also forced 13 turnovers to win that battle by five and visited the foul line 29 times compared to only 20 attempts for the Knicks (where they sank only 12). It was a game where the Knicks sorely missed the joint physical and outside antics of Julius Randle, who did not partake in Sunday's opener due to his own ankle injury sustained in the final victory over Cleveland on Wednesday night.
Despite being held in relative check during the first half with 11 points, Butler once again became the headliner. His injury occurred with five minutes remaining in regulation after he rolled his ankle on Hart's foot. Fueled by five triples, Gabe Vincent was Butler's primary offensive understudy with 20 points while fellow starter Bam Adebayo had 16 and eight boards.
The Knicks have a chance to even the series at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT) before the series shifts to South Florida. Though the Knicks have taken three of the prior five playoff series against the Heat, deeper history is not on their side: in nine prior games where the Knicks dropped the opening game of a playoff set at home (including a single-game round in 1954), they have no prevailed in the series in question.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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