The Knicks were able to get a win a few days ago with Melo only scoring one point. It was close throughout the whole game until the fourth quarter came. Miami went on a roll and couldn't be stopped. It was a win for them after they took the 84-77 lead thanks to the jumper by Chris Bosh. It was for sure done after LeBron found Wade for the alley-oop. That made it sure done-deal.
New York couldn't finish it out. It was expected they could have won without Melo, especially winning with his one-point performance, as mentioned before. But no, it didn't happen. Amare Stoudemire was frustrated throughout the fourth, and it showed signs that this team has been a nightmare so far this season, as they drop to 7-12 now.
As for the Heat, things have been going great. They have been doing well without Wade, as their Big Two with LeBron and Bosh have been excellent. With Wade back, this team is looking to cause even more trouble now for opposing teams. LeBron finished with 31 points, Wade had 28, and Bosh had 13.
"Real nice to be back," Wade said. "Felt great. Felt great."As for the Knicks, they were three-point obsessed. They took 43 three-point attempts, only making 18 of them. They shot more three's than two-point jumpers. As they kept shooting three's, the Miami Heat were cruising with the Big Two and No. 3 (Wade).
Bill Walker led the team with 21 points off seven three's, but was fouled out in the fourth. Behind him was Toney Douglass with 16 points, Landry Fields with 14, and a frustrated Stoudemire with twelve. The 43 attempts from behind-the-arc were the most this season, and they were only behind the Dallas Mavericks for the record, in which they set in 1996 with 49 attempts from three-point range.
"We shot a lot of 3's, but we did hit a bunch of them, which kept us in there," Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We just couldn't sustain it all the way through. Give them credit, they're good."
After missing six games, Wade came back with nice assists to LeBron and some flashy dunks of his own. He was eleven-of-19 from the field.
"It's a nice welcome back for that young kid, No. 3," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
The Knicks had them, but weren't able to pull it out. With Anthony, he won't be back until maybe Tuesday, according to the Knicks. This means that New York is going to have to bust it out tonight versus Houston without Melo again. We'll see how they do. But give New York credit, they played solid versus Miami, until we hit towards the midway part of the fourth quarter.
"This was a game for us to win," Knicks center Tyson Chandler said. "We were right there. Just down the stretch they changed their coverages. We had them. ... It was open and our game for the taking, but obviously they were the better team."
As for Miami, they will face the Chicago Bulls tomorrow, which looks to be a solid match-up with two of the best Eastern Conference teams. Looks to be a good one.
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Josh has been writing since 2009 and founded FootBasket in April 2009. He also writes at Hardcourt Mayhem and contributes to TrueHoop’s Eight Points Nine Seconds. He also owns his own Pacers blog at StaringDownSpike.com. Check him out on JoshDhani.com and follow him on Twitter @JoshDhani
