Knicks Blown Out By Heat Behind James, Wade

Thursday, February 27^th, 2014

New York Knicks vs. Miami Heat

Post Game Recap

The Knicks came into the game with the best winning percentage against the Heat since the start of last season and left with it dropping a little bit. The Knicks were handled rather easily tonight by the two-time defending champs, getting blown out 108-82. It was tough to watch at points if you are a Knicks fan and it reached a low when they actually went away from the game for a bit in the fourth quarter to watch the end of a the triple-overtime thriller between the Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors. If the season hadn’t hit a low point yet, having a game switched over to a less than marquee match up like that should do it. The Knicks will be back at it again tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden to take on the Golden State Warriors.

-Player of the Game: Carmelo Anthony

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

As it has been too often this season, Anthony looked to be one of the few Knicks to come in and try tonight. Anthony tried once again to put the team on his back tonight but he was unable to do it alone against one of the best teams in the NBA. Tonight Anthony finished with 29 points on 11-20 from the field, including 3-8 from the three point line and 4-6 from the foul line. He also added seven rebounds, two assists and one resounding block of LeBron James. He also had another highlight play with a dunk over James early on in the game. It was another efficient scoring night that has gone to waste as the Knicks got blown out.

-Positives

Tyson Chandler was the only other Knicks to have any real positive impact on the game. Chandler dominated a mostly undersized Heat team, terrorizing them on the interior while on the court. Chandler finished with 19 points on 6-9 from the field and a solid 7-8 from the foul line to go with 16 rebounds. Chandler made a living in the paint and caused some problems for the Heat rolling to the basket for alley-oop dunks and keeping plenty of possessions alive with six offensive rebounds. He joined Anthony as the only player to really show up tonight with some effort.

It is hard to believe but the Knicks were actually the aggressors for a lot of the game. They got at it on the offensive glass, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds for the game. They also got out some in transition, scoring 14 fast break points. They even got to the foul line more than the Heat, attempting 22 and knocking down 16 compared to 12-18 for Miami.

-Negatives

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The Knicks offense was listless outside of Anthony and Chandler. No one else shot 50 percent from the field and as a team the Knicks were able to only hit 37.3 percent of their shots. It got even worse the further away they got from the basket, as they made only 4-23 attempts from beyond the three point line, good for a putrid 17.4 percent.

The Knicks matched their poor offense with an equally as poor performance on the defensive end. The Heat ran their offense without much of a problem as the Knicks kind of let them do whatever they pleased on the offensive end. The Heat finished the game shooting 60.8 percent overall and 40 percent from the three point line. The Knicks had no answer for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who scored 31 and 23 points respectively, combining to go 23-32 from the field.

Tim Hardaway Jr. had quite possibly his worst NBA game to date. He couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat in the ocean, going 2-15 from the field and missing all eight of his three pointers. He also was taught a lesson defensively by Wade, who worked him throughout the night. Wade brought out his whole arsenal on the Knick rookie, whose offensive woes were augmented with the problems Wade caused him on the defensive end. He would finish the game with an extremely ugly -35 on the night.

Hardaway Jr. cannot be blamed solely though for what happened tonight to him defensively. The culprit is Mike Woodson, who asked Hardaway Jr. to guard Wade in the first place. It is no secret that Hardaway Jr.'s defense is not up to par defensively, so having him defend an All-Star and future Hall of Famer in Wade when he struggles to guard fringe rotation players makes little sense. Woodson also paired him for long stretches on the court with Amar’e Stoudemire, who has his own defensive deficiencies as well. When he saw things getting bad he let them get out of hand without making a move. Woodson also made head scratching moves by taking Jeremy Tyler out of the rotation and essentially shortening it to only seven players. He also played Shannon Brown as the third player off the bench, a player the Knicks signed Wednesday. Woodson seems to pick his rotations for the night out of a hat instead of how players perform.