Series rekindles ‘gladiator battle’
MIAMI – The New York Knicks recognized they were in for a fight with their Game 1 loss to the Miami Heat in this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.
They punched back Tuesday night with a series-tying 111-105 victory at Madison Square Garden.
Having taken one on the chin, the Heat vow to be weaponized when the series resumes Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Kaseya Center.
“A gladiator battle,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of what he expects to follow.
“If you’re a basketball aficionado,” Spoelstra said, “you’ve got to love this series.
“Our guys can’t wait for Saturday. It can’t happen soon enough, to get out there and compete again.”
With both teams so efficient in winning their first-round series in five games, the NBA moved up the series’ start to Sunday to accommodate national television. That, in turn, has created this three-day break.
It is a break that affords additional rest for Spoelstra’s leading protagonist, with Jimmy Butler sidelined Tuesday by the ankle sprain sustained midway through the fourth-quarter of Sunday’s 108-101 victory.
With the Knicks fully expecting Butler back.
“You already knew the answer to that,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Spoelstra remained typically coy. “His body will let you know, him know, me know, the team know,” Spoelstra said. “There’s no way to predict it. But I’m glad we have a couple of extra days.”
It also affords additional time for Heat forward Max Strus to recover from the hard fall he took in Game 2 and resulting lower-back bruise.
Perhaps even more significantly, it allows Heat center Bam Adebayo to marinate on the Heat’s power game coming up short when needed most during Tuesday’s decisive closing stages.
“I feel like this game was on me and I lost it for us,” he said, on the court during a fourth-quarter sequence when the Knicks grabbed four consecutive offensive rebounds before converting
the first of consecutive 3-pointers, and also committing a foul that became part of a Knicks late four-point play. “I gotta be better. I played terrible. So, yeah, I put this one on me.”
Of fouling on that four-point play when he attempted to power through a screen, Adebayo said, “Coach has been telling us night in, night out, to watch the back screens on the back side, and I got caught with one.”
The Knicks ultimately took the fight to a team lacking the skill, in the injury absences of Butler, Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo, to do anything but fight.
“We competed at a high level against a tough team,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said, “and we got the win. They’re a really tough team.”
The Knicks outrebounded the Heat 50-34, including 14-5 in the fourth quarter.
“It was physical under there,” Spoelstra said, “a lot of grappling, a lot of blocking out, a lot of pursuing.
“When it comes to those moments of truth, you have to make plays. We did make some plays; they made more.”
Now it comes down to a Saturday moment where the Knicks will try to regain the homecourt advantage lost in Game 1, with Heat having won both of their home games in the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I feel a sense of urgency regardless,” said Knicks forward Julius Randle, who also benefits from the three-day break, having missed Game 1 with an ankle sprain. “The team over there are competitors.
“I’ll do whatever I got to do to make myself available to play and just take it a day at a time.”
In some ways, it is a series that has managed to rekindle the memories of when Heat-Knicks truly was gladiatorial.
“We just wanted to come in and be more physical,” said Knicks backup center Isaiah Hartenstein. “That was one of the spots in the first game we wanted to improve. We felt like they couldn’t really feel us.” Punch.
Counterpunch.
“It has been a good, challenging series so far,” Knicks forward R.J. Barrett said. “It has been a dog fight.”