Wednesday night the New York Knicks won their third game in a row. It was an impressive win over the Southeast Division leaders, the Miami Heat.
It was good to see New York able to hang in there with a slow it down, muck it up, Playoff type team. The most shocking thing of the night was the ability and the efficiency to which the Knicks scored. New York converted on 55.7% of their field goal attempts Wednesday night, the Heat normally hold opponents to 42.8% ; which is the fourth stingiest defense in the NBA.
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It was a pleasant surprise to see the Knicks operate so methodically on offense while Miami slowed down the game. The are the second slowest team in the NBA with 94.4 pace. With the Heat’s ability to shut down opponents and control the pace, Miami allows only 94.7 opponent points per game. This is second only to the San Antonio Spurs, who are quietly on a historic tear defensively.
Not only were the Knicks able to score efficiently, New York also really showed up defensively Wednesday night. Particularly in the second quarter, where the Knicks held the Heat to 36.4% shooting. New York went on a 13-2 run late in the second quarter, and would take a 47-39 lead into halftime.
The Knicks held the Heat to 41% shooting through three quarters of play. It was largely due to the brilliance of Robin Lopez, who shut down the pick-and-roll play the Heat love to use with Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside only scored eight points and had four turnovers. The athletic big man was held to only one highlight play alley-opp dunk.
Not only did Lopez hold his own against an athletic freak of nature, but he also schooled Whiteside on the offensive end! Lopez scored a season high 19 points! The Knicks’ center showed good footwork and patience against Whiteside, pump-faking him into the air, avoiding the blocks.
Lopez again showed his ability to shut down one of the league’s best big men, displaying it not too long ago against Andre Drummond over a week ago. Again, this is why the Knicks signed Lopez! To be the defensive anchor New York sorely needed after the Knicks traded Defensive Player of the Year, Tyson Chandler away a summer ago.
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The Knicks were also able to hold Chris Bosh relatively in check, even though he did score 28 points on 12/22 shooting. As efficient as those numbers look, New York was able to limit Bosh’s play-making abilities for his teammates, thanks in large part to the Knicks’ rookie Kristaps Porzingis. Porzingis’ length and agility really caused trouble for Bosh’s outside game. The young Latvian was able to stay in front and recover on moves which Bosh normally make defenders look silly, thus really limiting Bosh’s mid-range game.
Although… it was not all rainbows, puppy dogs, and sunshine for Porzingis… The 7’3″ rookie was again rejected by the rim…
It would have been a spectacular sequence of plays as Porzingis had just blocked Luol Deng on the other end, running back down only to miss. Whomp, whomp.
Carmelo Anthony had a fabulous game Wednesday night, playing the most efficient he had played all year. Anthony shot 75% from the field and scored 25 points on only a dozen attempts. Anthony is currently in a season-long funk, shooting a career low 42.4% from the field, that is worse than his rookie year…
The unsung hero of the night was probably Derrick Williams, who only scored 13 points but it was an impactful 13 points. Williams always seemed to score when the Heat were making a run, breaking up their momentum, keeping the tide in favor of the Knicks.
REPLAY: @DWXXIII rises high for the alley-oop! #Knicks lead Heat 84-69 w/ 6:28 on the clock. #NYKvsMIA pic.twitter.com/xTJMyNsuyR
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 7, 2016
New York went on to easily win the 98-90, with as large as a 15 point lead in the fourth quarter.
Next: Stats That Emphasize JUST How Much the Knicks Have Improved!
This was an encouraging win against a tough opponent, hopefully the Knicks can keep it up because the San Antonio Spurs are up next.