The Miami Heat beat the Knicks 93-85 to end New York's nine-game winning run at home.
The Heat offset a 42-point performance from New York's Carmelo Anthony to log their third win this season against the Knicks, who may be Miami's first-round opponent in the National Basketball Association playoffs.
The Heat (42-17) are second in the Eastern Conference, three games behind the Chicago Bulls. The Knicks (31-29) drop a spot to eighth in the standings, two games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks in the race for the final postseason berth. The Philadelphia 76ers are seventh, half a game ahead of the Knicks.
The Knicks trailed 29-22 after the first quarter at Madison Square Garden in New York and outscored Miami 22-17 to cut the deficit to two points at halftime as Anthony contributed 22 points, half New York's total.
Miami led 71-68 at the end of the third quarter, a deficit that Steve Novak wiped out with a 3-pointer 12 seconds into the fourth quarter.
New York had a 79-75 advantage with 8:07 to play before Miami sealed the season sweep over the Knicks with an 18-6 scoring run to close the game.
LeBron James had 29 points and 10 rebounds, while Dwyane Wade contributed 28 points and nine rebounds for the Heat, who won for the fifth time in 13 road games since the beginning of March. Chris Bosh scored 16 points and had 14 rebounds for the visitors.
Anthony, who had his second 40-point performance in a week, also had nine rebounds for New York, which is playing without the injured Amar'e Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin.
The Bucks (29-31), who lost 105-99 to the Indiana Pacers yesterday, next play the Washington Wizards on April 18. The 76ers, 95-89 losers to the New Jersey Nets April 13, play the Orlando Magic tomorrow.
The Knicks have six games remaining in the regular season, beginning with a home matchup April 17 with the Boston Celtics, who have already clinched a playoff berth. New York also has road games against the Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Bobcats, and a home meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment