New York, N.Y.- The New York Knicks faced the Miami Heat at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. The Knicks are still without star point guard Jalen Brunson as they are fighting to keep the number three seed in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, Miami is on a different trajectory; the Heat currently hold the 10th seed, which is last place for the play-in.
The Heat opened the game up with a 12-0 run that forced Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau to call a timeout to have his guys regroup. On the ensuing play after the timeout, Mikal Bridges knocked down a three-point shot to stop the bleeding and get the Knicks going. The Knicks would continue to fight and claw back, but the Heat were still up 29-18 at the end of the quarter due to the hot shooting of their sharpshooters. Tyler Herro had 10 points, and Duncan Robinson had eight points for the quarter.
The second quarter was where things took a turn for the Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns became unstoppable in the first few minutes of the quarter. The star big man went off and scored 15 straight points for the Knicks as they took their first lead of the game before the Heat called a timeout. ” He gave us life… that sort of got us going, we had some huge baskets in transition, and we went from there,” said Coach Thibodeau.
After a strong second quarter, it was all Knicks from that point forward going into the second half.
Especially in the third quarter, the Knicks looked like a different team. “We start the game slowly… the way we played in the third, with a lot of energy and I thought the defense was terrific,” said Coach Thibodeau.
Everyone on the Knicks did their part in ensuring the win down the stretch as they outscored the Heat by 23 in the second half, and that resulted in a win with the score being 116-95.
A big part of this victory was the big three of Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, and Karl-Anthony Towns. Josh Hart would earn himself a triple-double on the night with 12 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists. Bridges had himself a great shooting night from long-range as he knocked down four of the six threes he attempted on the night and finished with a total of 28 points that led all scorers on the night. Towns made his presence felt; he scored 23 points on the night and grabbed seven rebounds.
The Knicks are back in the winning column after coming off a tough loss to Golden State last Saturday night, they will now shift their focus to the San Antonio Spurs as they go on the road to play them on Wednesday night.
