By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
NEW YORK –- There is an interesting dynamic running through the Miami Heat right now.
At 42-17 overall after a 93-85 win at Madison Square Garden over a New York Knicks team fighting for its playoff life, the Heat are all but locked into the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed and are generally considered one of only a few true, legitimate NBA title contenders.
The Knicks, meantime, dropped in the No. 8 spot, half a game behind the Philadelphia 76ers.
Within Miami’s gaudy .712 winning percentage and beyond their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, everything is not ideal right now with the truncated 66-game regular season rapidly coming to a close.
Entering Sunday, the Heat were just 4-8 on the road since March 1 and an even more troubling 1-8 in their last nine games against teams with a .500 record or better.
No matter the level of talent Pat Riley has put together in South Beach, no team is going to win in May and June if it can’t win on the road and beat quality opponents. Credit Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra for having the most rational view of what Sunday meant for a team that is gearing up for a championship run after the disappointment of coming up two games short last June.
“It was great to come out on the road and have a game that feels like this, where there is a level of healthy concern coming into the game and that’s what we should have,” Spoelstra said. “Not a panic or a worry, but healthy concern about how you are playing and owning up to it and for the respect of the opponent you are about to play.”
Outside of seeing if the Heat could keep their psyche in check, Sunday also potentially represented what the near future may hold.
Unless the Orlando Magic completely implode without Dwight Howard and the Knicks go on a run, New York is looking at either the No. 7 or No. 8 seed for the postseason.
With the Heat all but locked into the No. 2 spot, a No. 7 seed for the Knicks would give it a first round matchup with the Heat. If the last week is any indication, the Knicks could be better off with the No. 8 seed and meeting with the Chicago Bulls.
The Heat swept the Knicks, 3-0, during this regular season and while the Knicks are without
Amar’e Stoudemire (bulging disk in lower back) and Jeremy Lin (left knee surgery), it may not matter with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, two of the best closers in the NBA, ready and waiting to make every big play late.
Sunday was the prime example of how good the Heat can be when it really matters and how far the Knicks still have to go to think about tangling with a team that talented in a seven-game series. James (team-high 29 points, 10 rebounds) and Wade (28 points, nine rebounds, four assists) combined for 14 points as part of an 18-10 run to close the game, which was tied at 75 with 9:06 to play.
All of that came while holding off Carmelo Anthony, who scored a game-high 42 points, but there would be no Garden magic for Anthony and the Knicks as there was last Sunday against the Bulls.
“Their one great player played great,” Wade said of Anthony. “Melo’s a heck of a ball player. He can lead a team to a win on any given night.”
One particular stretch late in the game with the Heat up 81-80 saw a Joel Anthony tip followed by a Wade jumper from 16 feet and a long James jumper the next time down to extend to an 87-80 lead over the course of exactly one minute.
All told when the day was over, you were left wondering what the Knicks can do to stop this group in crunch time during the course of a series what with James and Wade.
The real downtrodden Knicks fan may even have been wondering if the Heat will prevent the Knicks from winning a playoff game for the first time since 2001.
Nothing is set in stone at this late regular season date, but if it is Heat-Knicks in the first round, Sunday may have been a very fair indication of what we’re in for.
**For more from NBA.com, read the Notebook with Video, Notes & Quotes here.
Photo: Getty Images
