Miami just needs to keep doing what they are doing. LeBron playing like and MVP, D-Wade shooting lights out, and Bosh stepping it up and knocking down jumpers. Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony are going to have their hands full with Tyson Chandler and Amare, so Bosh should get open quite a bit and hit some shots. The key for Miami is to play great defense and to keep shooting well. Boxing out and and getting rebounds, while not turning the ball over, will give Miami more 2nd chance points.

New York is a completely different team from their first meeting earlier this season. “Linsanity” is now the point-guard and they now have a great bench that includes newly-signed J.R. Smith and little-known Steve Novak. Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire have been rusty as of late, after both missing a few games in a row. Miami always has to watch out for the Knicks 3-point shooting. The Knicks can stroke it when they get hot and that can be a Heat killer. If Lin keeps driving it in and kicking it out, it could end up being a problem for Miami.

Miami is looking to continue their winning streak to 8 games tonight, but face a very tough test from these New York Knicks. It is a big game, but could also be a preview of a possible playoff matchup. I never thought the day would come where headlines are Lin vs. LeBron, but then again I never thought the Knicks-Heat series would be feisty again. We will see tonight, but it’s definitely going to be a good one.
Come back to allucanheat.com for some post-game analysis.

The Heat are capable of shutting down anyone on any team with their defense. Miami immediately needs to fluster Jeremy Lin and force him to turn the ball over. Turnovers have been one of the two things Lin has had trouble with so far. In the last 10 games, he has averaged 5.1 turnovers and once turning the ball over 9 times in a game.

The other knock on Lin, and probably another one of the reasons he has so many turnover, is that he is not very good at driving with his left hand. He always goes to the right and dribbles himself intro trouble, sometimes getting lucky and hitting a layup or dishing a pass out.

The Heat take on Linsanity and the Knicks on Thursday night

If the Heat are successful in forcing Lin to turn the ball over and going to the left, they will shut down Linsanity. This is a big game for Miami, considering they’re playing a completely different New York Knicks team than they have played this year. Shutting down Lin needs to be a priority and everything else will take care of itself.