New York Knicks Schedule: 5 Key games for 2021-22

New York Knicks 5 Key Games: A midseason battle with the Miami Heat

The New York Knicks and the Miami Heat play a similar brand of basketball. They’re slow, they’re physical, they’re grinders — the 2021 Heat-Knicks may have reminded fans of the impassioned blood baths that these two teams would get into in the 1990s.

The Knicks may have finished with a better record on the season but they went 0-3 on the season against the Heat.

There are just some matchups where you can tell certain players have a little extra fire in them and that’s exactly how it felt each time these two teams squared off.

This matchup will be the 2nd of 3 times where the New York Knicks and Miami Heat will play each other. I circled this one because it’s the first game back from the All-Star break, Friday night Knicks at MSG.

I fully expect these two teams to be exchanging places in the standings throughout the season.

Miami’s big offseason move was acquiring longtime Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry. The Heat know they can be one of the best teams in the league and they want to get back to where they were in 2019-20 – the NBA Finals.

Like the Nets, the Heat were one of those teams that New York would get so close to beating, only to come up short.

Being able to come up with a big win against a Heat team that will likely be neck-and-neck with them in the standings would be significant for the Knicks to gain some 2nd-half momentum.

This next matchup could have huge playoff implications at the end of the year.