Knicks come back from down 21 to stun Heat, 100-98, in must-win tournament game
NEW YORK — Jimmy Butler sized RJ Barrett up from the right corner, took a side-step and hoisted a buzzer-beating 3 — a shot he’s made time and time again under circumstances all too familiar for the Miami Heat closer.
It was off, and with the miss, so are the Heat odds at advancing to the Las Vegas knockout rounds after the Knicks scrapped their way to a 100-98 victory on their alternate orange In-Season Tournament court on Friday.
A sellout crowd of 19,812 rabid fans stuffed the seats at Madison Square Garden for a rivalry showdown between the Knicks and Miami Heat on Friday.
If it looks, sounds and feels like a playoff game, then maybe the NBA got something right.
The Heat built a 21-point third-quarter lead before the Knicks — led by Jalen Brunson and Immanuel Quickley — roared back with a furious fourth-quarter run to defeat the Heat in a must-win tournament game.
The Knicks outscored the Heat 29-11 in the fourth quarter, with Bam Adebayo missing a game-swinging poster dunk attempt over Isaiah Hartenstein with under 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Brunson scored 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and powered the fourth-quarter run with two and-one calls in a three-possession span. Quickley scored 20 off the bench and closed the game over starting guard Quentin Grimes.
Butler finished with 23 points on 50% shooting but couldn’t deliver on the game-winning shot. Adebayo finished with a double double — 21 points and 12 rebounds — but struggled after head coach Tom Thibodeau subbed Hartenstein into the game in place of Mitchell Robinson.
Hartenstein finished the night plus-18 off the bench, logging the second-highest plus-minus behind Quickley (22).
With the victory — as unlikely as it was with New York trailing 21 in the second half — the Knicks remain in qualification to advance to the knockout rounds in Las Vegas with a victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday.
The Heat, who were previously 2-0, will need to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks in their final In-Season Tournament game by a sizable margin to qualify as the wild card.
Early on, however, it looked as though the Heat were set to cruise to a victory.
Butler got off to a hot start. He isolated Josh Hart on the right wing, drove down the lane and spun, chicken-winging Hart’s hand with one arm while contorting his body to heave a one-handed prayer above his head with the other.
The shot went off the glass and into the net, plus the whistle for the and-one to extend Miami’s third quarter lead to 21 points. Thibodeau challenged the foul, claiming deception on the part of Butler, but the challenge was unsuccessful.
It was part of a script from a basketball horror flick played out on The Garden floors in the third quarter on Friday night.
The title: Rims Closed, Knicks eliminated — The Nightmare on 33rd St.
That was until Brunson said a fan told him the Knicks’ effort was embarrassing. After losing the third quarter by 17 points, the Knicks won the final period by 18.
Barrett finished with 18 points on 50% shooting from the field, and Robinson struggled in his first lackluster game on the glass: He finished with just five points and seven rebounds.
The Knicks have a tougher challenge, hosting Kevin Durant and Devin Booker’s Phoenix Suns, on Sunday.
That game is not an In-Season Tournament game. The Knicks won theirs on Friday, and could now qualify for Vegas with a sizable win over the Hornets on Tuesday.
