Can Miami slow down New York?
The inconsistent Miami Heat will look to slow down the red-hot New York Knicks on Friday evening inside Miami-Dade Arena at 8 p.m. ET.
Dating back to before the All-Star break, the Heat have lost five of their last six games. On Wednesday, it returned home from a four-game road trip and laid an absolute clunker against the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers 119-96, one of their worst losses of the season a game removed from picking up arguably their biggest win … against the same Sixers.
Meanwhile, envision the peak of Mount Everest — the Knicks are playing at a level higher than that right now.
New York is one of the hottest teams in basketball, winners of seven straight and nine of their last 10. Their victories over that stretch have been by an average of 14.1 points; better yet, their last six wins have come by an average of 17.7 points with five by at least 15 points, including their 142-118 dominant win over the Brooklyn Nets. Over this six-game span, the Knicks have posted a league-best NET Rating of 18.5, five points better than any other opponent.
The Knicks and Heat have met only one other time this season, which resulted in a 106-104 Knicks victory at The Garden on Feb. 2; Miami was led by Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, who combined for 57 points on 55.3 percent shooting while New York was led by R.J. Barrett (30 PTS, 13-23 FG) and Julius Randle (23 PTS, 10 REB, 8-19 FG).
Miami’s currently 1.5 games back of the Nets for the No. 6 seed, while the Knicks have separated themselves from the pack, moving two games ahead of the Nets and are only 1.5 games back of the Cavaliers. Will be able to inch a little closer to Brooklyn? We’ll see Friday.
INACTIVE/INJURIES:
MIAMI:
- Jimmy Butler (knee) — QUESTIONABLE
- Jamal Cain (G-League) — OUT
- Nikola Jovic (back) — OUT
- Kyle Lowry (knee) — OUT
- Omer Yurtseven (G-League) — OUT
NEW YORK:
- Daquan Jeffries (G-League) — OUT
- Trevor Keels (G-League) — OUT
- Duane Washington (G-League) — OUT
PROJECTED STARTING 5:
BROADCAST INFO:
Tipoff: 8:00 PM EST
TV: Bally Sports Sun, NBA League Pass
RADIO: WQAM 560 & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)
SPANISH RADIO: WAQI 710AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)
Come back to Hot Hot Hoops at game time to join our GameThread and chat about the game live with other Heat fans!