Preview: Miami Heat vs New York Knicks

This is one clash of the titans. The Miami Heat will face the New York Knicks in what may be a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals. Tune in to Sony SIX at 6:30 AM tomorrow morning for the Live telecast of this contest. The Knicks are standing at 13-4 and the Heat are a half game behind, with 12-4 for the season.

The Knicks have surprised immensely this season. They are facing a situation of addition by subtraction without Amare Stoudemire. They are actually playing well without him. Coming in to this season without Jeremy Lin and Amare Stoudemire, all fingers pointed at Carmelo Anthony to uphold the Knicks dynasty. He was the one who was blamed for jettisoning the core of the Knicks to the Nuggets in the trade which brought him here. By now, all critics have been silenced with the vicious onslaught Melo has been inflicting on the Knicks’ opponents. Coming into their previous game, Anthony was averaging 30.7 points over the previous six games.

Alarmingly, Carmelo Anthony has been listed as questionable for this one. Anthony dived in the stands and lacerated his middle finger. “It ain’t off,” joked Anthony. “I’m going to see how I feel. I wanna play. I have to do what’s right for the finger. If I can’t play, I’ll see them two more times.”

The Knicks are missing Amare, Iman Shumpert and Marcus Camby, and the Heat are missing Mario Chalmers, while Battier, Cole and Haslem are listed as probables. The last time these two teams faced off was on November 2. The Knicks took that one 104-84. This time, the match is at the Heat’s home court where they hold an 8-0 record this season. The Heat have won 10 of their last 13 meetings vs the Knicks. The Knicks are playing stout at both ends of the court, averaging 102.7 points per game and allowing just 94.9 to their opponents. While the Heat are doing well on offence, they simply aren’t defending as well.

It seems that this showdown was scheduled so as to give both teams plenty of rest, so they can come in fresh. The Heat faced the Wizards and the Knicks played against the Bobcats. One would think that either team was a walkover for those two heavyweights, but things didn’t turn out as expected. The Heat lost to the Wizards and the Knicks almost lost to the Bobcats. With Melo’s dive sending him out to the showers, the Knicks escaped on the strength of a last second JR Smith jumper which gave them a 100-98 lead to win it.

The Heat have something to prove tomorrow. Their previous game was their worst experience of the season thus far as they became the 2nd team to grant the Washington Wizards a victory. Even though LeBron James had a triple double in that one.

“This ain’t a lesson for us. We just lost. We’ve seen, and been through everything. It happens. It’s nothing new to us. We understand every team we play is going to play their best. They’re going to make shots that they don’t make against other teams.”- said LeBron James.

The Knicks and the Heat are both among the best in the league at three point shooting, with Knicks shooting 41.6 % from beyond the arc (2nd best in the league) and Heat’s 41.3 % being the third best in the league. Most notably, the Knicks have Steve Novak, the ice cold bomber and the Heat have Ray Allen, the leading 3 point specialist in the league. With both teams having players who make defences collapse on them, it leaves the perimeter open for the long range shooters to drop bombs.

The Heat and Knicks have a rivalry going right now. But the bad blood between the two teams goes way back. Remember the iconic picture of Jeff Van Gundy hanging on to the leg of Alonzo Mourning in the brawl in the 1998 playoffs? The rivalry was dead for a while over the last decade. But in 2011, when Carmelo was traded to the Knicks, the rivalry resurged anew. And it’ll advance tomorrow. The total record between the two teams favours the Knicks, 69-58. That is by far the most meaningless statistic if you want to predict the result tomorrow. But it is a good indication for the fans of either team looking to one up the other.

If Carmelo doesn’t play, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the Heat to take this one. On the other hand, with a team which just lost to the Wizards while their best player had a triple double, anything can happen. Expect a close contest tomorrow.