NBA 2K20 predicts the Miami Heat will lose to the New York Knicks
By Duncan Smith
The Miami Heat travel to the state of New York to face the New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon. What does NBA 2K20 have to say about the matchup?
The Miami Heat continue their road trip with a stop at Madison Square Garden to face the New York Knicks. Coming off a disappointing late meltdown against the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, this could be the cure for what ails the Heat on the road.
In our ongoing NBA 2K20 game-day preview series, we turn to Sunday afternoon’s game between the Heat and Knicks. The Heat bring their 27-11 record on the road to face the 10-29 Knicks.
We’ve been predicting game outcomes for the Heat using NBA 2K20 for almost a month, and for better or worse to this point we’ve only gotten three games incorrect. Once again we’ll look to the advanced predictive powers of NBA 2K to get an idea of what to expect in this game between the Heat and Knicks.
First, the ground rules. We modified the Knicks’ lineup to reflect their rotation and minutes from their last game, a 123-111 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday. As for the Heat, we’ll follow their minutes and rotation as closely as possible relative to their past few games.
In order to reflect the Heat’s defensive tendencies, we moved up head coach Erik Spoelstra’s run zone tendency from five percent to 50 percent. We also changed Bam Adebayo’s secondary position to power forward since Meyers Leonard’s positions look that way. Lastly,we edited Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, and Adebayo’s vitals to allow them to initiate the offense.
Starting lineups
Miami Heat
Point guard, Kendrick Nunn
Shooting guard, Duncan Robinson
Small forward, Jimmy Butler
Power forward, Bam Adebayo
Center, Meyers Leonard
New York Knicks
Point guard, Elfrid Payton
Shooting guard, Reggie Bullock
Small forward, R.J. Barrett
Power forward, Bobby Portis
Center, Taj Gibson
Outcome
New York Knicks 117, Miami Heat 107
These road woes continue to plague the Heat, and it seems the NBA 2K20 simulation is well aware of it. The simulation picked the Nets in the last game, and it’s done the same thing again with the hometown Knicks.
This game took the opposite trend of the last real-life game for the Heat. The Knicks got off to a hot start, outscoring the Heat 27-19 in the first quarter and 28-18 in the second quarter. The Heat tore off a 44-24 third quarter to actually take back the lead, but the Knicks closed strong with a 38-26 final stanza.
Both teams shot poorly from 3-point range, with the Heat going 10-of-33 from long distance and the Knicks going 7-of-23. The Knicks outscored the Heat by three points from the free throw line, and they shot 55 percent from 2-point range while the Heat were 50.8 percent.
Player stats
Miami Heat
Jimmy Butler – 25 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks
Bam Adebayo – 19 points, 18 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Tyler Herro – 18 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist
Duncan Robinson – 13 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal
Kendrick Nunn – 7 points, 4 rebounds, 10 assists
New York Knicks
Julius Randle – 23 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists
R.J. Barrett – 21 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 2 blocks
Elfrid Payton – 14 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals
Bobby Portis – 12 points, 10 rebounds, 1 steal
Allonzo Trier – 11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
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Make sure to check back Wednesday morning for our next projections between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs.