Melo Explodes as Knicks Extend Win Streak to Nine

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

By Kenneth Teape (@teapster725)

Tuesday, April 2^nd, 2013

Post Game Recap

Final Score: New York Knicks: 102 Miami Heat: 90

The Heat sat two of their three stars in Lebron James and Dwayne Wade with minor injuries, but the Knicks had their star play and he had an outstanding game.  With the win the Knicks extended their winning streak to nine games, the longest win streak since the 1993-1994 season; coincidentally the last season that the Knicks won the division as well.  Second place again belongs to the Knicks by percentage points and they extended their lead in the Atlantic Division to five games over the Nets.  The Knicks will get right back at it as they look to extend their winning streak into double digits tomorrow against the Hawks.

-Positives

• Carmelo Anthony came into the game with a mindset that he was not going to allow the Knicks to lose tonight and that is exactly the mindset he carried throughout the game.  He started the game on fire, knocking down his first seven attempts from the field and did not cool off too much for the remainder of the game.  In 40 minutes Anthony scored a career-high tying 50 points on 18 of 26 attempts from the field, seven of 10 from the three point line and seven of eight from the foul line.  The Heat elected to single-cover Anthony all night and he took advantage as there was no player that could match his physicality and quickness on the Heat with James sidelined.  Anthony looked great from all over the court and looks to finally be healthy as almost all of his shots were swishes tonight as he had great arc on his shots and was getting the necessary lift needed to knock them down. Tonight was the first time a Knick player scored 50 points in a game since Jamal Crawford did it, also against the Heat, during the 2006-2007 season.

• Anthony led the barrage from the three point line in knocking down seven of his 10 attempts and his teammates followed suit.  The Knicks shot a white-hot 51.9 percent from deep against the Heat tonight, knocking down 14 of their 27 attempts.  Iman Shumpert went three of five from behind the line and J.R. Smith chipped in two of three as well as the Knicks lit up South Beach tonight.

• After a weak defensive effort in the first half in which the Knicks gave up 58 points and rotated poorly on the defensive end, the Knicks got at it in the second half.  They stopped the Heat in their tracks and dominated the game throughout the second half, holding the Heat to only 32 points in the second half.  A big reason for that was the improved rotations and lock down of the perimeter.  In the first half the Knicks switching hurt them as poor rotations gave the Heat matchup advantages all over the court, especially on the perimeter with Kenyon Martin and Tyson Chandler getting stuck with guarding smaller players.  That all changed in the second half though as the Knicks locked it down and got the victory.

-Negatives

• The first half of the game the Knicks did not seem as engaged as they needed to be; knowing that James, Wade and Chalmers were not playing seemed to leave the Knicks playing with a lower intensity.  Without two of their big three and their starting point guard the Knicks should have put away the Heat from the start but were unable to, falling behind by eight at the half.  If not for Anthony’s heroics the Knicks would have been in a lot of trouble tonight.

• The perimeter defense of the Knicks’ tonight was a disaster for most of the night.  Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni had trouble stopping the Heat’s guards, especially Norris Cole, Mike Miller and Ray Allen.  All three beat Kidd to the basket multiple times and lighting it up from deep, going six of 11 combined.