Short-handed Knicks brace for Heat in New York

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 03-05-2012

Category : Playoff 2012

Tags: , , , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Short-handed Knicks brace for Heat in New York

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) Amare Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert are sidelined. Jeremy Lin isn’t back yet.

So where are the New York Knicks supposed to find enough offense to compete with the Miami Heat, and avoid setting a new NBA record for postseason futility?

”I don’t know. We’ve got to figure that out,” Carmelo Anthony said Wednesday. ”Some way, somehow, everybody has to do it.”

The Knicks haven’t been able to solve the Heat no matter who plays, dropping the first two games in this first-round series and all three during the regular season.

And if they are hoping to get an advantage from playing at home, well, they can probably forget that. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade thrive at Madison Square Garden and will be extra fired up Thursday night to try and move the Heat within one victory of the second round.

”It’s going to add a lot. We understand the intensity is going to raise even more,” James said.

”I’ve had an opportunity to play a lot of games in that building, but none quite as big as these. This is the Mecca of basketball and it comes with a little more incentive. There’s a lot of history in this building. But we understand what we’re there for.”

The Heat won Game 1 by 33 points and were never seriously challenged in the fourth quarter of a 104-94 victory on Monday, sending New York to its record-tying 12th straight postseason loss.

The frustration got to Stoudemire, who punched the case around a fire extinguisher after the game and cut his hand on some glass.

He had a muscle repaired by a surgeon Tuesday and met with his teammates Wednesday, where interim coach Mike Woodson said he was ”very apologetic.”

With his hand wrapped, Stoudemire said there was a ”great chance” he could play in Game 4 on Sunday, though the Knicks are listing him as doubtful.

Click here to continue

By BRIAN MAHONEY | The Associated Press

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Miami Heat’s Shane Battier bothers Carmelo Anthony, Knicks

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 02-05-2012

Category : Playoff 2012

Tags: , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Miami Heat’s Shane Battier bothers Carmelo Anthony, Knicks

In Shane Battier’s first moments on Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony Monday, after taking that defensive baton from the Heat’s LeBron James, Battier picked up two fouls at the speed of sound (or the speed at which they could be announced).

Anthony ended the night with 30 points on 12-of-26 shooting.

What happened in between during the Heat’s 104-94 Game 2 win goes a long way to showing Battier’s importance to the Heat.

“There’s no question it’s an element we didn’t have last year,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Battier.

“It’s another body. It’s 23 minutes of all-out intensity and intelligence. He makes it tough. He’s played a lot of the tough scorers over his 10-year scorer. That’s why we wanted to bring him in during the offseason.”

Battier said, “I don’t play the result. He’s going to score points.”

Anthony went just 3 of 8, scoring nine points in a second half spent playing bump-and-drive mostly against Battier. As the Heat churned away in the third quarter to the double-digit lead they would maintain most of the fourth quarter, Anthony went 1 of 5 from the field.

“We just wanted to make him work for his points,” Battier said. “We gave him a number of open looks, but for the most part, yes, we made him work for it.”

Heat swingman Mike Miller said, “If you look at Shane, he really studies the person he guards a lot. When you’ve got a guy like Melo, who scores from so many different areas, just knowing his tendencies helps.”

Click here to continue

BY DAVID J. NEAL
DNEAL@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Stoudemire hurt postgame, Heat beat NY, 104-94

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 01-05-2012

Category : Playoff 2012

Tags: , , , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Stoudemire hurt postgame, Heat beat NY, 104-94

MIAMI (AP) Amare Stoudemire walked out of the visiting locker-room showers late Monday night with one towel wrapped around his waist, another over his left hand.

He was silent as he briskly walked into the privacy of the training room. But this much is clear: What happened in the moments after Game 2 ended may hurt the New York Knicks more than anything that happened on the court against the Miami Heat.

Stoudemire needed treatment and stitches from doctors and paramedics after cutting his left hand shortly after the Heat beat the Knicks 104-94, taking a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series and sending New York to its NBA-record-tying 12th straight postseason loss.

”We’re all frustrated,” Knicks center Tyson Chandler said.

Dwyane Wade scored 25 points, Chris Bosh added 21 and LeBron James finished with 19 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Heat.

”You never want to hear anyone gets hurt,” Wade said. ”Hopefully he gets better. We want all their guns on the court.”

Everything the Heat did seemed like old news quickly after the game, when all anyone really wanted to talk about was what was going on in the Knicks locker room.

Miami-Dade paramedics – who staff every game – were summoned while reporters were kept outside much longer than the typical 10-minute cooling-off period.

”I really don’t know what’s the situation with that,” said Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, who said he was ”on the court” when whatever happened with Stoudemire occurred.

Anthony scored 30 points on 12-for-26 shooting for New York, which got 18 points from Stoudemire and 13 apiece from Tyson Chandler and J.R. Smith.

The only other team to lose 12 straight playoff games is the Memphis Grizzlies, who dropped their first dozen postseason contests from 2004 through 2006.

Click here to continue

By TIM REYNOLDS | The Associated Press

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

2nd Game: Knicks-Heat Preview

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 30-04-2012

Category : Playoff 2012

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

2nd Game: Knicks-Heat Preview

MIAMI (AP) When Jeremy Lin went down with a knee injury, Iman Shumpert stepped up for the New York Knicks.

Turnabout isn’t happening anytime soon.

Although Lin practiced Sunday, one day after the Miami Heat rolled past the Knicks by 33 points in Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference first-round series, New York coach Mike Woodson said Lin – the guard who became an overnight sensation this season by putting up dazzling numbers in February – is not ready to return. And Lin agrees.

So without Lin and now without Shumpert, who will be lost for up to eight months after tearing a ligament in his left knee on Saturday, the Knicks will have to do some scrambling to get ready for Game 2 in Miami on Monday night.

”It’s a big blow,” Woodson said. ”But again, that’s the whole beauty about having a pretty solid basketball team. Someone else has to step up now. He won’t be back this season. It’s what it is and we’ve got to keep it moving.”

The teams practiced simultaneously on Sunday, and the mood on each court couldn’t have been much different.

Downstairs on the main arena floor, the Knicks mocked Woodson for his lack of flexibility during post-workout stretching exercises, followed by Carmelo Anthony, Baron Davis, Amare Stoudemire and Steve Novak laughing it up more during a midcourt shooting contest. Upstairs, the Heat were saying they saw plenty of areas where they can improve.

Click here to continue

By TIM REYNOLDS | The Associated Press

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Heat deliver message to Knicks and league

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 29-04-2012

Category : Playoff 2012

Tags: , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Heat deliver message to Knicks and league

It was a magnificent six minutes and 32 seconds. Of course, there is no way to discover what will happen over the next two months as the NBA playoffs unfold, or even for the rest of this series, certainly not from a measly stretch of 392 seconds.

But, as much as anything, the Heat used the final half of the second quarter of their blowout 100-67 win over the Knicks in the series opener to deliver a message not only to the unfortunate fellows in blue-and-orange, but to the rest of the East and, indeed, the league in general.

The message: This is what we can do.

The score was 30-29 in Miami when Chris Bosh stepped to the free-throw line for a pair of shots. He made both, and in doing so, started a 24-2 half-closing run that was fueled in part – as embittered Knicks fans will surely point out – by the whistles of the referees.

But more than that, the run was driven by the ferocity of the Heat defense, by their precise rotations and by their dogged effort to keep the ball out of the hands of Carmelo Anthony, who had scored 42 points in a loss to Miami 13 days ago, but who was 0-for-7 to that point.

LeBron James scored 32 points on just 14 shot attempts on Saturday (he was the recipient of 14 free throws, including some questionable ones after Tyson Chandler was given a flagrant foul on a hard screen), and will get his accolades for the win.

It was a blowout in every sense, with the Heat holding the Knicks to just 35.7 percent shooting and forcing 24 turnovers. Anthony was 3-for-15 overall.

But look closer at what the Heat did during that dominant 6:32 stretch and, if there is anyone who deserves the second rung of credit, it is reserve forward Shane Battier, who spent possession after possession fronting Anthony and utterly flummoxing the Knicks’ offense by simply making it impossible for Anthony to touch the ball.

Click here to continue

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

James scores 32, Heat roll by Knicks 100-67

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 29-04-2012

Category : Playoff 2012

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

James scores 32, Heat roll by Knicks 100-67

MIAMI (AP) LeBron James took the fourth quarter off. And Miami’s postseason got off to a flying start.

James scored 32 points after shooting 10 for 14 from the field, Dwyane Wade added 19 points in his first game back after dislocating his left index finger and the Heat rode the strength of a 32-2 run to easily beat the New York Knicks 100-67 in Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference first-round series on Saturday.

It was physical, it was heated – and it was one-sided, too.

Mario Chalmers added 11 points and nine assists for Miami, which turned 27 New York turnovers into a franchise playoff-record 38 points.

The Knicks were called for 21 fouls in the first half, Miami enjoying a 28-5 advantage in free throws attempted in the first 24 minutes alone, and center Tyson Chandler sent James flying with what was called a flagrant foul as the Heat were blowing the game open in the first half.

”Our guys had a noticeable look in their eyes the last 24 hours,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ”We wanted to get back to the basics and play to our identity. For the most part, we were able to do that by being aggressive.”

J.R. Smith scored 17 for the Knicks, who lost Iman Shumpert to a knee injury and have dropped 11 straight playoff games dating back to 2001. Carmelo Anthony missed 12 of 15 shots and finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Baron Davis added 10 points for New York.

It was the worst playoff loss for the Knicks since a 126-85 defeat at Chicago on April 25, 1991.

Click here to continue

By TIM REYNOLDS | The Associated Press

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Knicks’ hopes for first-round upset of Heat are on perimeter

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 27-04-2012

Category : Playoff 2012

Tags: , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Knicks’ hopes for first-round upset of Heat are on perimeter

Jared Jeffries isn’t the first Knicks player you think when considering the team’s chances against the Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. But he’s undoubtedly a big key for Mike Woodson’s half-court trap.

The postseason is finally taking shape.

The Knicks have two games to catch the Orlando Magic and capture the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs, but since Stan Van Gundy’s team is hosting the seven-win Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday, it appears unlikely that New York will be able to close the two-game gap in the standings.

That leaves the Knicks in a probable first-round matchup with the second-seeded Miami Heat. And while that will undoubtedly be a ratings bonanza for the NBA, it’s a tall order for interim coach Mike Woodson and his players.

The Knicks couldn’t beat the Heat in their early-season pre-Jeremy Lin phase. They couldn’t beat them at the height of Linsanity in late February. New York couldn’t even top Miami under Woodson’s system on April 15th.

So why would a first-round matchup against the Heat be any different than the three regular-season meetings?

Well, there’s no guarantee that it would be. Carmelo Anthony did score 42 points against the Heat in a losing effort back on April 15th, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to the postseason.

The Knicks have Stoudemire back, so Anthony will spend more time being defended by LeBron James rather than Chris Bosh, whereas the two split responsibilities on Melo in the final regular season matchup.

Click here to continue

By Alex Raskin, NJ.com Knicks blogger

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Letting Carmelo Anthony Go It Alone May Not Help Knicks

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 16-04-2012

Category : Miami Heat

Tags: , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Letting Carmelo Anthony Go It Alone May Not Help Knicks

There may or may not have been a playoff statement made by the Miami Heat on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, but there certainly was a personnel seminar conducted by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Stylistically and statistically, they sent a pointed message to the Knicks on the virtues of all-stars who go out of their way to share.

“Doing it by yourself is for when you’re young, when you’re 22, 23,” Wade said after the Heat absorbed 39 points by Carmelo Anthony through three and a half quarters before limiting him to an after-the-fact 3-point shot down the stretch of a 93-85 Miami victory.

“That’s for then. When you get older, you appreciate it more when you got other guys that can get the job done and you don’t have to have the ball 90 percent of the time.”

Since Anthony has been in the N.B.A. for eight years, same as Wade and James, shouldn’t he feel the same way?

Not that Anthony has formally made a request to dominate the ball; he just generally seems most motivated and productive when the Knicks’ offense is flowing like a river through his marvelously gifted hands.

And lately, while Anthony has been on a scoring binge that has bordered on unstoppable, the popular narrative around the Knicks has been that this would be the most prudent approach for the playoffs, with a returning Amar’e Stoudemire best-suited for minutes off the bench.

In effect, so Stoudemire wouldn’t get in Anthony’s way. And so he could enjoy a few minutes at a time of relative freedom to shoot as much as he wishes without Anthony on the floor or Tyson Chandler cluttering up the paint.

Click here to continue

By HARVEY ARATON

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Heat beat Knicks 93-85, clinch Southeast Division

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 16-04-2012

Category : Miami Heat

Tags: , , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Heat beat Knicks 93-85, clinch Southeast Division

NEW YORK (AP) The Miami Heat finally came to Madison Square Garden, a sea of orange surrounding them in what looked like a playoff game.

Maybe that’s all it took to bring out their best on the road.

LeBron James had 29 points and 10 rebounds, Dwyane Wade added 28 points and nine boards, and the Heat overcame Carmelo Anthony’s 42 points to beat the New York Knicks 93-85 on Sunday to clinch the Southeast Division title.

Originally scheduled to be here in November, the Heat’s lone regular-season game in New York came with the compressed regular season coming to a close – and with a chance they’ll be back again soon.

”This is obviously a lot of our favorite places to play, but I think it came at a good time for us,” Wade said.

”We were struggling, as in to play a complete game on the road, and what better place to come in and focus then here, where this team has been playing well and can embarrass you if you don’t play your game. So understanding that this could obviously be a first-round matchup as well, I thought today we came in, we didn’t play amazing, but played good enough to win the game. We did a lot of good things, so it was a good time for it.”

Chris Bosh finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Heat, who pulled away in the fourth quarter of a possible playoff preview. Miami is second in the Eastern Conference and the Knicks came into the game tied for seventh, although they fell back behind Philadelphia after the loss.

Anthony had only two baskets in the fourth quarter, perhaps tired from playing 43 minutes and with James switching over to defend him after Anthony had overwhelmed Shane Battier. New York had its nine-game home winning streak snapped.

Anthony had the Knicks hoping he could pull out another game against a power team after scoring a season-high 43 last Sunday in overtime against Chicago.

Click to continue

By BRIAN MAHONEY | The Associated Press

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Knicks should play the odds against Bulls or Heat

Posted by Spoelstra Heat | Posted on 15-04-2012

Category : Miami Heat

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Daily Fantasy Basketball

Unlike season-long fantasy sports, results are based on the games being played on the day of your game. This makes it easy to jump in and play without having to wait through a whole season.

Click here => Play Now!

Knicks should play the odds against Bulls or Heat

If Miami Heat point guard Norris Cole wants to walk the ball up the floor against New York, that would play into the Knicks’ hands, one NBA scout told NJ.com.

Only one game separates the currently eighth-seeded Knicks with the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers, which means New York would likely have one of two first-round opponents should they make the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

In the event they finish eighth, they’ll pull the 44-14 Chicago Bulls, the NBA’s best team this season. Or, if they should jump over the 76ers in the standings, they would play the 40-16 Miami Heat, who happen to visit Madison Square Garden this Sunday.

Now the Knicks aren’t going to tell you which team they’d prefer to face in the first round, but there are a few safe assumptions.

If reigning MVP Derrick Rose (ankle/groin) is less-than 100 percent, as he was in New York’s win over Chicago on Eastern Sunday, there’s little double that Mike Woodson’s team would want to finish eighth and play the Bulls.

Obviously New York fell to a Rose-less Chicago on Tuesday but any chance to play an elite team without its best player is going to be more palatable.

The Knicks might also matchup better defensively against the Bulls.

Rose can be defended by rookie Iman Shumpert, Carmelo Anthony can take Luol Deng and Landry Fields and J.R. Smith can worry about Richard Hamilton.

Against the Heat, on the other hand, Shumpert would have to split his time between Dwyane Wade and Miami’s point guard duo of Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole.

Amar’e Stoudemire, who would be returning from a bulging disc injury, would be charged with defending Chris Bosh – assuming Tyson Chandler and Jared Jeffries don’t spend more time on Miami’s power forward – and Knicks fans will have to hope Anthony can keep LeBron James in check (here’s to hoping).

Click here to continue

By Alex Raskin, NJ.com Knicks blogger

Join The Biggest Erik Spoelstra Fan Page on Facebook

Previous
Next

I coach Unemployed & Underemployed
the skills to really earn online



"I got more than 12 years of experience"



YOUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE



twitter

Twitter Entries

  •  

Follow us on Twitter