The Miami Heat are finally back to a .500 record of 24-24, beating the New York Knicks 106-97 in Madison Square Garden. However, this game was not without fortunate and unfortunate moments.
The Miami Heat have been attempting to unleash a better offensive team in the past few weeks to overcome their recent woes, and the moment finally came. Miami gutted out a win against the New York Knicks to cement a 24-24 record, as the Knicks continue their tanking season, the 10-38 record screams, “we want Zion.”
Fittingly so, Wayne Ellington, who has only played in 6 of the Heat’s last 24 games, was one of the reasons the Heat were able to get to a .500 record with the Tyler Johnson ankle injury. Head Coach decided an hour before the game that Ellington would start for Johnson, while many believed that would be Rodney McGruder and we believed it would be Dion Waiters. Ellington ended up with 19 points on 6-13 from the field and 4-11 from downtown, ending the game with 8 points in the last few minutes of the game.
However, per Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel, the Heat were dealt a bad hand beside Ellington’s key 19 points in this game.
Heat say X-rays on Jones' right knee returned negative. MRI more telling.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) January 28, 2019
Derrick Jones Jr., one of the Heat’s most surprising talents this season, made the entire arena gasp as he fell to the ground grabbing his knee. You could not hear a whisper beside the agony of Jones Jr., who looks to be getting an MRI tomorrow morning after severely injuring his knee. Luckily, he was able to be walked off the court, albeit, limping and being held up by a few Heat officials.
While the Heat looked fairly ill after that tough loss, Kelly Olynyk ended up taking the bulk of the responsibility that Jones Jr. left when he got injured, scoring 11 points in the 2nd quarter. Not to mention, there may have been another big man with some underrated numbers in this one, as Hassan Whiteside scored 16 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and totaled 3 blocks in only 24 minutes of action (+24).
Ultimately, it was up to this whole unit to pull out the solid win, and while we were completely wrong in our assumption that Dion Waiters’ would get his start in this one, Ellington filled Johnson’s missing minutes perfectly (at least, in the 2nd half).
Tune in on Wednesday night as the Heat play the Chicago Bulls at home at 7:30 PM Eastern.