Heat Pull Away in 2nd Half to Beat Knicks

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:46:15 +0000

So much for Linsanity. The Heat (27-7) stopped Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks (17-18) on Thursday by beating them 102-88. For Miami, this was their 8th straight win and all of them have been over 12 points. LeBron led the way with 20 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals, and 2 blocks, but the whole team led the Heat to the victory.

Besides LeBron’s awesome performace, the whole Heat tem stepped it up. Chris Bosh had 25 points and Dwyane Wade had 22 on 10-22 shooting, his time in 12 games where he shoots under 50%. Joel Anthony had 5 blocks and Norris Cole also had ten points. Udonis Haslem had 9 rebounds and the Mario Chalmers played great defense on Jeremy Lin. The Heat started out sluggish, but really picked it up in the 2nd half.

The Heat really exposed Jeremy Lin and showed what his weaknesses were. He was a non-factor with 8 points and just as many turnovers. Melo had 19 points and Amare chipped in with 13, but J.R. Smith came off the bench for Landry Fields and played very well. Steve Novak had 12 points on 4-5 shooting, while only shooting 3 pointers.

This looked like it was going to be an amazing game in the first half, but the Heat ended it in the 3rd half. Miami pulled away and never looked back off of that. This was a big win against an energized Knicks team, and now they can go into the All-Star Break knowing that they disabled New York with their defense. Great way to end the first half of the season!

Heat vs. Knicks Preview

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:02:39 +0000

Tonight the Miami Heat (26-7) welcome the new-look New York Knicks (17-17) to the American Airlines Arena. The Heat have won 7 straight games and have really been coming together as a team. They’re shooting lights out and beating teams by over 10 points consistently. The Knicks have been a different team since Jeremy Lin was inserted into the starting lineup and the Heat have never seen this Knicks team before.

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.

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Heat Pull Away in 2nd Half to Beat Knicks

Heat vs. Knicks Preview