SMACK FRIDAY
Reeling Knicks walloped by Heat in 3rd straight loss
The Heat don’t bring the same buzz to Madison Square Garden since LeBron James left last year, but the stars he left behind keep leaving New York with the same results.
While Carmelo Anthony was held scoreless after the first quarter of Friday night’s 9778 loss to the Heat, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh shoved the Knicks back below .500 after combining for 37 points in their eighth straight win over the Knicks, which includes four straight at the Garden.
The Knicks (89), who have dropped three straight since an 86 start to the season, trailed by one at halftime, but were held to 31 percent shooting from the floor in the second half and limited to fewer than 80 points against the Heat for the second time in four days.
“There’s concern from the standpoint that we have to do things differently,” coach Derek Fisher said. “We can’t expect to do the same thing and think that results are gonna change.”
Said Anthony: “I don’t know what’s missing but we need to figure it out. To drop three after we’ve been playing so well, [it’s] a reality check and we’ve got to figure it out on our own. Nobody else is going to help us out.”
Anthony was no better equipped to answer what happened to him after he carried the Knicks in the first quarter. He opened the game hitting four of his first five shots and scoring 11 of the Knicks’ first 23 points, but missed his final eight shots and somehow still ended the game tied with Kristaps Porzingis for a teamhigh 11 points.
Limited by Gerald Green and rookie Justise Winslow, Anthony said the Heat didn’t make any defensive adjustments after his fast start, attributing some of the struggles to indecisiveness.
“I just couldn’t find it in the second half for whatever reason,” Anthony said. “It’s still a fine line that I have to toe, that I have to play with just figuring this thing out while everybody else is trying to find their way out there.”
The offense was in amazing rhythm midway through the second quarter, taking a 4336 lead on a pretty passing sequence in which the ball never touched the floor. Anthony started it by throwing an outlet pass to Langston Galloway, who hit a streaking Porzingis for an alleyoop, igniting the packed crowd and promptingi a Miami timeout.
That high never was hit again.
“I don’t know what happened, but from that moment we just couldn’t find our rhythm anymore,” said Porzingis, who added eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
Wade and Bosh were quiet early, but shifted the momentum by combining for 18 points in the second quarter. Bosh finished the half with 16 points, hitting a jumper in the final seconds to give the Heat a 5049 lead at the break.
When the Knicks returned, the weeklong offensive struggles surfaced again. Stymied by one of the league’s top defenses, the Knicks were held to 14 points in third quarter on 7of25 shooting.
“They are big up front and they really make it tough for you to do the things you want do,” Fisher said. “I thought as the game went on we got stagnant and we tried to force the action as the defense ramped up.
Green did more than just team up to stifle Anthony, adding 21 of his 25 points in the second half to help the Heat pull away, while the Knicks finished the game hitting just 3of14 3pointers.
“We fell apart in the second half,” Anthony said. “For whatever reason, we just fell apart and from that point on we just couldn’t get it back and they took off.”