Jalen Brunson, with 30 points (10 of them in a stellar final quarter), was the burning nail the New York Knicks grabbed on Tuesday to tie their East Semifinals (1-1) with a 111-105 win over the Miami Heat that puts them on the ropes despite not having the injured Jimmy Butler.
After losing home court on Saturday, the Knicks couldn’t afford another setback at Madison Square Garden, especially since Butler was absent with a sprained right ankle.
However, the New Yorkers had to fight hard to add their first victory in this series, so much so that at times it looked like they would travel to Miami with two losses in their pocket.
Brunson, who also grabbed 5 rebounds, was essential to avoid that disaster and was joined by Julius Randle who returned after not playing the first game due to injury (25 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists), RJ Barrett (24 points ) and Josh Hart (14 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists).
Highly erratic and unconvincing throughout the night, the Knicks trailed by 6 points in the fourth quarter, but turned the game around with a great 24-12 to close out the game.
Caleb Martin (22 points and 8 rebounds), Gabe Vincent (21 points) and Max Strus (17 points) were the top scorers for a very creditable Heat, with lots of personality and who, despite their sounding inferiority, were on the verge of a splash on the rebound (43 vs. 63 for the Knicks).
BRUNSON TO THE RESCUE
Randle started off feeling good, both scoring and distributing, but his 10 points in the first quarter were overshadowed by a Barrett who set the pace for the locals with 16 goals in the first 12 minutes.
With Martin starting in place of Butler, the Heat entered the game with their heads held high, all very clear and confident in their block’s collective performance.
After leading New York narrowly in the first quarter (31-29), the Knicks got stuck with a totally broken offense that went over three minutes without scoring early in the second period.
In addition, their inside game began to fill with errors and both Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein went into halftime with three errors each.
Facing the Knicks’ misgivings, the Heat continued to strike unhurried but without a break, standing out on defense (only 20 points from their rivals in the second period) and going to the locker room with a lead (51-54) with Martin as the benchmark in attack with 12 points.
The Knicks ended the first half very awkwardly and continued to do so throughout the restart.
Struggling to get up to speed and matching the concentration of Heat heavily involved in the game, Tom Thibodeau’s men found gold in the third quarter in a Brunson who woke up with 13 points and three 3-pointers.
Strus, however, reacted wonderfully to the visitors with 11 goals in the penultimate period and the game went into the last twelve minutes as a very sharp and all-determining game (76-77).
Miami kept adding names to their group display of character and finally it was Vincent’s turn, explosive with 8 points in a seen and not seen to open a small gap (87-93 with 7.03 to go).
Then came Brunson’s heroic moment.
With a fantastic display of offensive resources, the point guard led the comeback of some of the Knicks who desperately needed someone to step up.
Hartenstein also signed for the epic by getting huge on the offensive rebound.
Against some Heat who faltered for the first time of the night, Hart tripled a +4 with only 1.38 left and despite having to sweat free throws to the end, the Knicks sealed the win.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
