Carmelo Anthony-less New York Knicks rain triples to spank Miami Heat 112-92 – NBA Recap
On a night when Carmelo Anthony was in street clothes nursing a lacerated finger in his left hand and LeBron James, the league’s reigning MVP, came one assist shy of a second consecutive triple-double, the New York Knicks still
found the firepower to thump defending champions Miami Heat 112-92, the second time this season when they have cooled off the Heat by 20 points.
The Knicks were just sensational from the land of three. They made 44 attempts from downtown, connected on 18 of them, and it were the NBA season high 8 three pointers in the third quarter that really changed game for good.
With Melo on the bench, Raymond Felton took on the scoring responsibilities and erupted with a season-high 27 points which included a career high 6 three pointers. Steve Novak scored 18 points on a 7 of 13 shooting from the floor;
Tyson Chandler added 13 and hauled down 9 rebounds for the Knicks, who also got 13 from J.R. Smith, 12 points from Rasheed Wallace and 11 from Jason Kidd.
LeBron James finished the night with 31 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
The Knicks, who have now moved one and a half games clear of Heat in the top heavy Eastern Conference, were given a run for their money in the first half. They were leading early, but Miami came back and a buzzer beating three
from Mike Miller put them up by 26-23 after one. The teams slugged it out early in the second frame as well, but with 3:49 remaining in the half and the scores tied at 42, Miami pulled away with an 8-2 run to make it six point game. The response from the Knicks
was immediate and came in the form of a 6 zip run to level the scores.
James countered that with a triple and after Felton had apparently tied the game at 53 with 1.5 seconds remaining, LeBron let go a buzzer beating long two. The shot was however milliseconds late and got cancelled out after replays
were run.
The Knicks went bang-bang right at the start of the second half; opening up with an 11-2 run that included three triples. The 3’s just kept on raining after that as the Knicks pushed their lead to 86-72 with 2:02 remaining on the
clock.
Early in the fourth, Miami made it a 9 point game at 84-93, but the Knicks killed the contest with a 19-4 run. They did not score in the last three minutes, but it really didn’t matter at that point.
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