NBA Playoffs 2012 - LeBron James steers Miami Heat to a 100-67 victory over the New York Knicks
On Saturday night Miami Heat opened their account in the first round of playoffs with a dash. The men from the South Beach were just sensational and erupted with a 32-4 run spanning the second and the third quarter as they finished
off the New York Knicks, 100-67 here at American Airlines Arena. With this win Heat sent out a clear message that they are ahead of the league.
Heat held the Knicks down to a 35% shooting and played with an aggression unseen before in the regular season. Heat’s coach Erik Spoelstra said that his team was yearning to make a bold impression.
"Our guys had a noticeable look in their eyes the last 24 hours," Heat coach Erik said. "We wanted to get back to the basics and play to our identity. For the most part, we were able to do that by being aggressive."
LeBron James marshalled all the players with 32 points. King James looked like a man possessed especially after being shoved in the back by Tyson Chandler, who was given a flagrant-1.
"I'm a different player this year, a different person this year compared to last year," James said. "I've waited to get back to the postseason, prepared myself all season, throughout the offseason to get back to this point."
Dwyane Wade played for the first time since dislocating his finger and scored 19 points while Mario Chalmers barely missed his double-double with 11 points and 9 assists.
Miami’s heated offense startled Knicks and just in the 1st half they committed 21 fouls. Heat enjoyed a 28-5 advantage on the free throws in the same span.
Reserve J.R. Smith netted a team high 17 points while forward Carmelo Anthony recorded 11 points and 10 boards. Baron Davis chipped in with 10 points in Knicks’ worst playoffs defeat since a 126-85 loss back in 1991 at the hands
of mighty Chicago Bulls.
New York couldn’t get a handle on and to make matter worse, they lost Iman Shumpert for the season. He tore his lateral meniscus in the knee while dribbling the ball. Amare Stoudemire however showed determination to fight back
in the next game.
"This series is not over," Knicks forward said. "We've got to learn from our mistakes today and get ready for Monday."
The game started evenly and midway through the opening frame, the Heat were just having a slender lead of 1 point, 11-10. However, they quickly converted it into a 22-16 lead and went on to cap off the segment at 24-18.
Knicks showed resilience in the 2nd frame and with 6:53 in hand they had trimmed down the lead to just 1 point, 30-29. James and company however went berserk with 14-2 burst. With this run Heat concluded the 1st
half with a 54-31 advantage.
Miami opened the 3rd with an 8-2 run and ballooned their advantage to 62-31. The away side tried to harness the lead with 9 unanswered points and shaved off the deficit to 62-40, but Miami and they left them baffled
with another huge 19-7 spurt. As the game entered into its last 12 minutes the hosts were up with 81-47.
With 6:39 on clock Miami were enjoying an unquestionable 30 points, 91-61 lead and after that the result was never in doubt.
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