Knixed, Heat Advance In 5
Wednesday night, the Miami Heat took their first step in returning to the NBA finals defeating the New York Knicks in game 5 ending the series. During pre-game discussions, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra simply told team his “prove it”, and proving it by wanting to want this series more. Spoelstra told the heat the main key to winning game 5 would be grabbing loose balls and dominating the glass (rebounds). Heat guard, Dwyane Wade said in a post-game interview the games emphasis was to cut down on turnovers and focus on rebounding, previously stated above. For the first time this series the Heat won the rebounding battle in a 42-36 edge. The Heat had five players grab 5 more boards and every player that saw the floor had 2 or more rebounds. For the duration of the game, Miami just seemed to coast their way to the finish line as they didn’t want to embarrass their friends from New York. LeBron had 13 points with only six shot attempts in the first half, while Wade went scoreless in the first quarter then netting 12 in the second. During the middle of the third quarter the Heat had a 10+ lead and the Knicks never got within singles digits for the rest of the game. The Knicks had a very injury-prone season as they lost their breakout star Jeremy Lin suffered a small meniscus tear in late March; and guards Iman Shumpert and Baron Davis both tore their ACL’s during the Miami Heat series. With their off-season officially starting today, hopefully everybody can improve their health and conditioning to come back next season at full strength.
LeBron James fished off as the player of the game scoring 29 points, 7 dimes and 8 boards; while Dwade and Bosh both chipped in 19 points in their game 5 efforts. Carmelo Anthony finished off with a game high 35 points (31 shots) and 8 boards, while co-captain Amar`e Stoudemire struggled with foul trouble the entire game scoring only 14 points. Miami now gets to rest up for 3 days until Sunday in South Beach when they will play the 3rd seeded Indiana Pacers. Miami won the season series against Indiana 3-1 but most of the basketball world has the underdog Pacers giving the Heat match-up problems and some predict Indy might even upset Miami.
Game 1 is scheduled this Sunday on ABC with a tip-off set for 3:30 pm (ET).
Win Or Go Home.
Heat win 4-1
Game 1 – Miami 100, New York 67
Game 2 – Miami 104, New York 94
Game 3 – Miami 87, New York 70
Game 4 – New York 89, Miami 87
Game 5 – Miami 106, New York 94
Bonus – Amar`e Stoudemire Shows No Love for Shane Battier