The Miami Heat dropped another tough game on Friday night and this time, the results are as tough as the defeat itself. While most times the “results” are the defeat at the hands of the New York Knickerbockers on Friday night, losing that game wasn’t the only way that the Miami Heat were defeated.
With the Knicks sitting just a few slots ahead of the Miami Heat in the playoff standings right now and with three matchups against the Knicks in the month, one on Friday night, this was a direct opportunity for the Miami Heat to impact their playoff future.
But to begin the game off, the Miami Heat saw themselves blitzed by the most hottest of New York Knicks shooting. And at the very forefront of that, was none other than Julius Randle, a man that has been on a tear this season when it comes to shooting the ball from range.
As the Miami Heat have in their previous five or six games, going back to just before the All-Star break, they came out struggling to make shots. This was all while the New York Knicks, again, made everything they shot it seems, shooting 60 percent from the field and over 40 percent from three for most of the first half.
Miami Heat Can’t Escape ‘Circus-Shot Randle’ And The Traveling Knickerbockers
And to that notion, the Knicks would score 71 points in the first half on Friday night. But after that shooting anomaly, the same one that has seemed to bite the Heat in their previous five or six games, things would even out in the second half as the Miami Heat would only allow 51 Knicks points.
Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the Miami Heat would come back behind the efforts of Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, and Jimmy Butler.
That’s, not to mention, two huge late triples by Victor Oladipo.
Because with all of their collective efforts on both sides of the ball, the Miami Heat would close a one-time 17-point deficit to go up with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game.
And with the Miami Heat up one point, Randle would take the toughest of fading threes from the far right-hand corner of the court—and nail it to put the Knicks up by one with what would be less than two seconds left in the game.
The Miami Heat Came All The Way Back Friday, But Randle Just Kept Hitting
And after Kevin Love would throw the ball away on the following Heat inbounds play, it was another tough loss for the Miami Heat since the All-Star break.
This defeat also sends them further down in the standings to create more space between them and the top teams while creating less space between them in the teams below them, such as a Hawks team that they’ll face in their next two games.
Now, there is this though. The Miami Heat team from the second half of Friday night’s game is the one that we’ve seen more often than we haven’t this season.
And that team can compete against anybody.
And though they haven’t been as good this year as they were in previous years shooting the ball, they haven’t been as bad as they’ve been in the last couple of games either. And on top of their ineptitude, the opposing teams in the past five or so games have flat-out shot the lights out.
Those two factors are reasons for hope. Because after Friday night’s game and the circus shots sank in that one to, simply, rip your hear out—one can only hope.