It was only last year when the New York crowd was giving LeBron James standing ovations for his Madison Square Garden performances. This time around, the Knicks crowd met James with a rain of boo’s, chants, and jeers. Had the Knicks known that it only gets LeBron going when he is booed, the result might have came out a little different.
Instead, James took advantage of the Knicks suspect defense and their raucous crowd with his second triple-double of the year. To the tune of 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, LeBron led the Heat to their eleventh consecutive win by a score of 113-91. Dwyane Wade came alive in the second half to finish with 26 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three steals, and three blocks, while Chris Bosh finished with 26 points and seven rebounds.
Amare Stoudemire’s streak of ten consecutive games over 30 points ended as he finished the game with 24 points on a less than impressive 11 of 28 shooting. Danillo Gallinari led the team with 25 points, but saw only four of the points come in the second half. Wilson Chandler was the only other Knick in double-figures with 17.
Amare not reaching 30 points was a direct result of the hard-nosed defense of Joel Anthony. In 20 minutes, Joel greatly limited Stoudemire’s production in the paint as he turned him into a mid-range shooter. The Heat tried a number of players on Stoudemire, Ilgauskas, Dampier, and Howard all got a shot, but it was Anthony who came out on top as the defensive leader of the Heat. Amare had also hit above 50% in every game during the streak, but he did not nearly look like himself tonight.
The Knicks certainly gave the Heat a run for their money in the first half as they were able to tie it up at 57 going into the second half. The next 24 were a complete different story as the Heat outscored New York 56-34 with the help of more hot shooting by James and cold shooting by the entire Knicks roster. It was the 11th consecutive game where the Heat held their opponents to under 100 points. The 91 points was 17 off of the 108 they average.
Dwyane and Chris have had their fair share of impressive outing’s against the Knicks, but it was the LeBron James show all night at the Garden. James was unstoppable in the first quarter as he netted 14 of the Heat’s 34 points, but was greatly limited in the second quarter as the Knicks roared back with a 32-23 second quarter of their own. The Heat however proved once again that they are a second half team and started out hot in the third quarter taking a double-digit lead that they would never relinquish.
LeBron had the jump shot going all night, but it was Dwyane bringing the entertainment with a number of highlight plays. He had an early fast break slam on Gallinari and capped it off with a cross over and dunk over Stoudemire later on. Wade wasn’t looking like himself early in the game as he struggled from the field and allowed Danillo to net 21 points in the first half. His second half was more reminiscent as he stepped it up on defense and offense.
The team gets no day off as they fly to Washington to take on the lowly Wizards. Miami’s first win of their streak came against Washington in a 106-95 win at the AAA.